Viewing Inka Essenhigh’s ‘Minor Sea Gods of Maine’ reminds us of turning the first page of a wonderful storybook. We delve back into our imaginations and explore the celestial images of our dreams on canvas. A ghostly green sea seeps over rocks. Finely drawn waves form a frothy beaked gargoyle, sitting on the edge of a rocky precipice. A long green limb emerges from the sea and penetrates the sky: Dimensions and boundaries become meaningless aside from one fine line marking the horizon. Brush strokes seem gentle but precise in creating this mythical otherworldly scene, a throwback to religious pagan imagery.
A staple on the New York art scene for the last decade, Essenhigh made a move in the last few years from enamel to oil, a daring shift for an artist so established in her medium. Working mostly from a small cottage in Maine, inspiration comes increasingly from landscapes and is reflected in her most recent show at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, which features ethereal images of Goddesses and imps. At times the painting verges into pure illustration: Essenhigh exhibits more and more skill in working on small details, tiny flowers delicately sketched and faces transformed from window dressing to fully fledged portraiture.
In an era where simple beauty is so often written off in favour of ‘thinking art’, Essenhigh’s work becomes subject to cynicism and expectation. We assume that she must create this work with a knowing wink or a satirical flourish. If we look however at Essenhigh’s work outside of a framework of kitch or straight painting, it exudes a simple sense of the aesthetic sublime so missing from a world of technological advancement. In a world where the kindle replaces dusty old hardbacks and iPads replace the Sunday morning broadsheet, something extraordinarily fulfilling comes from taking a Romantic stroll in Inka Essenhigh’s world.