Inka Essenhigh
OVERVIEW
Inka Essenhigh (1969 Bellefonte, PA)‘s painted visions are richly colored distorted fables peopled with archetypes, sprites, and anthropomorphized nature. The paintings breathe and undulate with life as ocean becomes sea monster, tree becomes goddess, or hipster bar-goers become drunken ghouls. The imagery is imbued with a sense of a collective unconscious and mischievous narrative that makes its way into each landscape, building, and figure. As she describes it, her mythologies strive for “the feeling of an inner vision” captured during the witching twilight hours.

HISTORY
2016
Between Worlds, Frist Centre, Tennessee, USA
New Work, Honolulu Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2015
Stars and Flowers, Baldwin Gallery, Colorado, USA
2014
Comet Dust & Crystal Shards, Jacob Lewis Gallery, New York, USA
Columbus College of Art & Design,Canzani Center, Ohio, USA
2012
The Natural and the Man-Made, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2011
New Editions and Monoprints, Pace Prints, New York, USA
2010
The Old New Age, 303 Gallery, New York, USA
2008
Inka Essenhigh, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
2006
Inka Essenhigh, 303 Gallery, New York, USA
2005
Inka Essenhigh, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Inka Essenhigh, DA2 Domus Artium 2, Salamanca, Spain
2004
Sint-Lukas Galerie, Brussels, Belgium
Etchings, Michael Steinberg Fine Art, New York, USA
2003
Inka Essenhigh: Recent Paintings, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, USA
Il Capricorno, Venice, Italy
Edinburgh, Fruitmarket Gallery, Scotland
2002
Inka Essenhigh, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Inka Essenhigh, 303 Gallery, New York, USA
2001
Works on paper, Victoria Miro (Project Room), London, United Kingdom
Works on paper, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA
2000
Inka Essenhigh, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Inka Essenhigh/Peter Halley, Mary Boone Gallery, New York, USA
1999-2000
New Paintings, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
American Landscapes: Recent Paintings by Inka Essenhigh, New Room of Contemporary Art, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
1998
Recent Paintings, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, USA
1997
Wallpaper Paintings, La Mama La Galleria, New York, USA
2016
Dead Among The Dead!, Ellis King, Dublin, Ireland
Imagine, Brand New Gallery, Milano, Italy
Introductions, La MaMa La Galleria, New York, USA
2015
Eden, éden, curated by Timothée Chaillou, Galerie Torri, Paris, France
The Ukrainian Diaspora: Woman Artists 1908-2015, The Ukrainian Museum, New York, USA
Painters NYC, Paramo gallery, Guadalajara, Mexico
-Travelling to Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños (MUPO), Oaxaca, Mexico, 11 March – 15 May, 2016
2014
Disturbing Innocence, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA
Sargents Daughters,, Sargents Daughters, New York, USA
2013
The Golden Ass, Blindarte Contemporanea, The Golden Ass, Naples, Italy
Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality, Victoria Miro,London, United Kingdom
Pivot Points: 15 Years & Counting,Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, USA
2012
Fairy Tales, Monsters and the Genetic Imagination,Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Tennessee, USA
-Touring to Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, Canada; Glenbow Art Museum, Calgary, Canada
The Sound of Painting, Palazzo Saluzzo Paesana, Turin, Italy
2011
Inka Essenhigh & Richard Van Buren: Un/Natural Splendor, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine, USA
Inside the Painters Studio, Stephen D. Paine Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts, USA
Creating the New Century: Contemporary Art from the Dicke Collection, Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, USA
Counterpoint, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine, USA
2010
Between Picture and Viewer, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, USA
2007
Counterparts: Contemporary Painters and Their Influences, Contemporary Center of Art, Virginia, USA
The Game of Multiple Meaning: Symbolism and the Art of the Present, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Comic Abstraction, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
COMIX,Kunsthallen Brandts, Odense, Denmark
Imagination Becomes Reality, ZKM / Museum Fur Neue kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany
2006
Painting Codes, Galleria Comunale dArte Contemporanea, Monfalcone, Italy
The Complusive Line: Etching 1900 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
USA Today, The Royal Academy of Art, London, United Kingdom
Imagination Becomes Reality, Part III. Talking Pictures, Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany
Motion on Paper,Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom
Art on Paper 2006, Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina, USA
2005
Life and Limb, curated by David Humphrey, Feign Contemporary, New York, USA
Neobaroque, Centro de Arte de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
2004
Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque curated by Robert Storr, Santa Fe 5th International Biennial, Santa Fe, New Mexico
26th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Funny Cuts – Cartoons and Comics in Contemporary Art, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
Perspectives at 25, Contemporary Arts Museum, Texas, USA
2003
Painting Pictures; Painting and Media in the Digital Age, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
Comic Release: Negotiating Identity for a New Generation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, USA
-travelling to Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans and University of North Texas, Denton (January 2003 – mid 2005)
Supernova: Art of the 1990s from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA
Reverie: Works from the Collection of Douglas S. Cramer,The Speed Art Museum, New York, USA
Drawing, G Gallery, Washington D.C., USA
Drawing, Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, USA</p
2002
The Galleries Show,, The Royal Academy of Art, London, United Kingdom
Pertaining to Painting, Contemporary Arts Museum, Texas, USA
Pertaining to Painting, Austin Museum of Art, Texas, USA
Jay Davis, Inka Essenhigh, Christian Schuman, Angstrom Gallery, Texas, USA
2001
Hybrids, Tate Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom
braille, Angstrom Gallery, Texas, USA
2nd Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany
Works on paper: from Acconci to Zittel, Victoria Miro, London, United Kingdom
Casino 2001, 1st Quadrennial of Contemporary Art,SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuelle Kunst, Ghent, Belgium
2000
Greater New York: New Art in New York Now, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, USA
The Figure: Another State of Modernism, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York, USA
Deitch/Steinberg New Editions, Deitch Projects, New York, USA
Emotional Rescue, Center for Contemporary Art, Washington, USA
To Infinity and Beyond, Brooke Alexander, New York, USA
1999
Pleasure Dome, Jessica Fredericks Gallery, New York, USA
The Armory Show, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, USA
A room with a view,Sixth @ Prince Fine Art, New York, USA
1998
The New Surrealism, Pamela Auchincloss Project Space, New York, USA
Wild, Exit Art/The First World, New York, USA
Pop Surrealism, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Connecticut, USA
Summer Review, 98, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, USA
Celebrating Diversity: Contemporary Women Painters, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, New York, USA
ANATOMY/INTELLECT, Stefanelli Exhibition Space, New York, USA
1997
Sex/Industry, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, USA
The Art Exchange Fair, Stefan Stux Gallery, New York, USA
Girls! Girls! Girls!, Tricia Collins Grand Salon, New York, USA
1996
Set Off: Inaugural Group Show, View Room Exhibitions, New York, USA
Underexposed: Nine Young American Painters, André Zarre Gallery, New York, USA
Featured Web Page Artist for December, Artists Space, New York, USA
Night of 1000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York, USA
1994
Juried Group Show, School of Visual Arts, FirstFloor Gallery, New York, USA
1993
Young Ukrainian American Painters Group Show, Ukrainian Museum, New York, USA
Work-Play: Picture Thinking and the Analogical Imagination, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, USA
Group Show: Inka Essenhigh, Stephen Mumford and Leemour Pelli: Paintings, School of Visual Arts, Wooster Street Gallery, New York, USA

WORKS
NEWS
Alternative Show : ART FAIR TOKYO 2020
KOTARO NUKAGA is pleased to highlight works by two contemporary women artists, Inka Essenhigh and Mariko Kobayashi, from our alternative show at the gallery in response to the cancellation of the Art Fair Tokyo 2020. The show starts from Thursday, March 19th, 2020. We will also be presenting works by Nir Hod, Tony Matelli, and
Inka Essenhigh: Other Worlds: Inka Essenhigh
Inka Essenhigh exhibition “Other Worlds: Essenhigh” is on view at Susquehanna Art Museum until January 19th, 2020. Her paintings are fantasized version of elements taken from reality, as trees become goddesses, all participating to create mesmerizing sceneries. Essenhigh captures the magic with her rich palette of colors, and smooth, flowing lines similar to smoke of
FIXED CONTAINED Curated by Tomokazu Matsuyama
KOTARO NUKAGA is pleased to present Fixed Contained, a group exhibition of seven international contemporary artists: Brian Alfred, Firelei Báez, Inka Essenhigh, Nir Hod, Tony Matelli, Tomokazu Matsuyama, and Carlos Rolón. This exhibition is guest curated by Matsuyama, and will be on view from April 20, 2019 through June 29, 2019. Each of the artists