World Traveler or Hotel Room

World Traveler or Hotel Room

2004
Artist
Inka Essenhigh, American, 1969-
Born: Bellefonte, PA
Work Locations: New York, NY
Country
United States
Object
painting
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Accession Number
2015.654
Credit Line
Gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum
Inka Essenhigh (American). World Traveler or Hotel Room. 2004. Oil paint on canvas. Gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum. 2015.654.
Dimensions
height: 80 in, 203.2000 cm; width: 72 in, 182.8800 cm; depth: 1 3/4 in, 4.4450 cm
Inscription
Verso, handwritten in black ink: Inka Essenhigh, 2004, World Traveler (Hotel Room), 72" x 80" oil on linen
Department
Modern and Contemporary Art
Collection
Modern and Contemporary Art

In muted grays and browns with red accents throughout, “World Traveler or Hotel Room” depicts a central figure hunched over a simply made bed in an empty room lit by bare fluorescent light bulbs. The man’s belongings: water bottles, notebooks, clothes, and toiletries are spread out on the mattress and floor around him.

Essenhigh explains, “I think of [this painting] as being about a new sort of middle class refugee, somehow having to be confined to a hotel room because of unforeseen circumstances. At the same time, I was picturing my own husband traveling around in hotel rooms during the Iraq War. But in this case a sort of societal breakdown where business as usual continues.” (From an interview with Noah Becker, Art in America Magazine, Jan. 15, 2010)

Inka Essenhigh is an established New York contemporary painter born in Belfonte, PA in 1969. She graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 1991 and then attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

© Inka Essenhigh

Exhibition History
  • "Negotiating Reality: Recent Works from the Logan Collection"— Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, University of Denver [08/21/2006 - 11/23/2006]