Inka Essenhigh

Living and working in New York, Inka Essenhigh's paintings draw on an astute awareness of contemporary culture and her immediate environment. They are infused with a dreamlike, surreal sensibility - often directly related to a particular perception or the atmosphere of an encounter, individual or scene. Everyday events such as a picnic in the park, supermarket shopping or drinking at an inner-city bar are transformed into grand, sometimes humorously epic scenes where the artists' cartoon-like figures fuse together with the trails and currents of energy that animate the canvas. With their pristine, high-gloss surfaces and accentuated colours Essenhigh's painting style continues to move towards an almost sculptural three-dimensionality in its delineation of forms.

In her most recent work, Essenhigh has abandoned the process of automatic drawing as a method of arriving at an unexpected subject matter. Her diverse visual vocabulary acquired from years of free association is here harnessed into creating deeply atmospheric images which express a keen awareness of seasonal cycles, reminding us of our fragile coexistence with the natural world, but also its resounding beauty.
 
Born in 1969, Inka Essenhigh lives and works in New York. She has exhibited at Museum of Modern Art, New York (2007), The Royal Academy of Art, London (2006), Domus Artium 2, Salamanca (2005), São Paulo Biennal (2004), Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami (2003), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2003) and the Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (1999).

www.inka-essenhigh.com

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