Artists in Residence
Inka Essenhigh and Steve Mumford are as different as their paintings. The two met while they were grad students at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan, and were married in 2003. While Inka, 38, bases her work in a cheeky pop fantasy, Steve, 47, draws from the factual world. "Our work sort of reflects our temperaments," he says. Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, he has tapped into his riskier side, in the vein of combat artists like Winslow Homer (and he's got the rugged mustache to match). His 2005 Baghdad Journal is a collection of watercolors and drawings capturing his experience in the war zone. "It was beginning to take a toll on my well-being," Inka, who has an upcoming show at the Victoria Miro gallery in London, remembers. When Steve announced his plans to return last April, she enlisted a couples therapist to negotiate the terms: "When he had to call, and if he didn't, what were the consequences," Inka explains. "We hammered it out like lawyers."
On Mumford: Tom Ford three-piece suit $3,990, and shirt, $390; tomford.com. Ralph Lauren Black Label tie and pocket square; polo.com. On Essenhigh: Daks dress by Giles Deacon.
