World Traveler or Hotel Room
- Inka Essenhigh, American, 1969-
- Born: Bellefonte, PA
- Work Locations: New York, NY
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
- "Negotiating Reality: Recent Works from the Logan Collection"— Victoria H. Myhren Gallery, University of Denver [08/21/2006 - 11/23/2006]