Inka Essenhigh: The Greenhouse

‘Some of these things she notices are actual (wild patterns in bark, for example, in Forrest Light) but some of what she’s noticing isn’t actual at all.’ — George Saunders

‘…looking at those flowers with Essenhigh’s hyper-clarity, I see that those Indian Pipes are made of constituent parts… that, for the moment, are hanging together in a simulacrum of “flower” but could, at any moment, blow apart; decay, degrade, bloom even further…’

‘Those Indian Pipes are so magnificently observed and “real-looking” that they make me realise how cursorily I might look at some real Indian Pipes if I happened to walk by some later this afternoon. I’d basically miss the whole show… Whereas, looking at those flowers with Essenhigh’s hyper-clarity, I see that those Indian Pipes are made of constituent parts, abstract forms, dimples, scars, non-flower elements that, for the moment, are hanging together in a simulacrum of “flower” but could, at any moment, blow apart; decay, degrade, bloom even further… the sky’s the limit.’

‘What’s more “unreal” than reality, closely observed?  What’s more “real” than the abstract patterns we find in every single thing, if only we could abide with that thing long enough?’

‘In Ghost Pipes, those two little units off to the right appear to be human. Or, let’s say, they are human-adjacent, they remind us of the human form. But they also seem pretty darn plant-like. We note that they appear to be growing out of (I’d say “standing on”) what appear to be rocks, the two of them, while admiring that Ghost Pipe off to the left. Their “bodies” seem to be made of flower-stuff. So, those two strike me as living beings, out for a stroll, who’ve wandered over from some nearby flower kingdom, to see what things are like over here.

My mind struggles a bit with this, and for me this is the essential Essenhigh moment.

The thing I’m seeing is so beautiful, so overwhelmingly itself, so convincing, so intense, so confident, that I find myself transported to the border between “real” and “unreal,” and, standing there, believing in this gorgeous-though-unlikely place Essenhigh’s made for me, I find myself rethinking those terms.

What’s more “unreal” than reality, closely observed?  What’s more “real” than the abstract patterns we find in every single thing, if only we could abide with that thing long enough?’

‘These are poppies, yes, but they are also stylised poppies and flawless poppies and poppies on their best day ever and poppies so full of life you can feel the imminent death in them.’

‘Even as that beautiful madness in Poppies resolves itself, into, yes, poppies, it threatens to explode into pure form. Which is what “real” poppies are doing all the time, which is what everything “real” is threatening to do at every moment: revert to pure form. Every formed thing will, in fact, revert, eventually, into pure form; will die, decay, lose its current shape, be remade, reborn, repurposed.

These paintings, for me, expand out into an extra dimension, the dimension of time. These are poppies, yes, but they are also stylised poppies and flawless poppies and poppies on their best day ever and poppies so full of life you can feel the imminent death in them.’

‘What I feel, looking at an Essenhigh painting, mostly, is the sheer delight of invention, the sense that she is following, as she paints, something she can’t name and isn’t all that interested in naming.’

‘What I feel, looking at an Essenhigh painting, mostly, is the sheer delight of invention, the sense that she is following, as she paints, something she can’t name and isn’t all that interested in naming. I find myself thinking about the beauty of overflow; about the hypnotic effect of artistic exuberance; of the mystery of the fact that, when a person is following ecstasy in this way (steering by the seat of her pants, just having some damn fun) this can lead that person into her greatest depths – can result in gifts like these paintings, which are, I suspect, in some ways a mystery to her even still and in which, I’m betting, from my own experience, she sees evidence of something bigger than herself – wiser, less restricted, more contrary, less interested than she herself, in everyday life, might be in making sense.’

‘I don’t know what these paintings ‘mean’ exactly, and I don’t want to: the little celebratory ripple they make in my consciousness is enough. That alteration is their meaning: I experience a brief liberation from the domination of the habitual.’

Born in 1969, Inka Essenhigh lives and works in New York. Recent solo institutional exhibitions include Other Worlds: Inka Essenhigh, Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA (2019); Inka Essenhigh: A Fine Line, MOCA Virginia, Virginia Beach, USA (2018) travelling to Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Michigan, USA (2019); Inka Essenhigh: Manhattanhenge, Drawing Centre, New York, USA (2018).

Her work has been exhibited internationally as part of group exhibitions at venues including Karma, Thomaston, Maine, USA (2024); Speed Art Museum, Louisville, USA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, USA (2023); the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, Maine, USA (2020); USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, USA (2020); American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, USA (2019); Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy (2018); the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, USA (2016 and 2012); Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, USA (2013); Dayton Art Institute, OH, USA (2011); Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, USA (2011); Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (2007); The Royal Academy of Art, London, UK (2006); Domus Artium 2, Salamanca, Spain (2005); São Paulo Biennale, Brazil (2004); Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA (2003) and the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2003). 

Essenhigh’s work is in the collections of major museums including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA; Denver Art Museum; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA; Museum of Modern Art / P.S.1 Center for Contemporary Art, New York, USA; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; Seattle Art Museum, USA; Tate, London, UK; Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, USA and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA.