NEW YORK, NY.- Bienvenu Steinberg & C presents Mia Enell's second solo exhibition with the gallery. The titular painting, Disco to Death, sets the tone for Enell's new body of work. In this triangular composition anchored by a red womb, a headless woman holds a skull in one hand—in a Shakespearean pause—and a disco ball in the other. Inspired by friends who radiated life even as their days were numbered, the works in this exhibition reflect on the ebbs and flows of existence. The communal joy of the dance floor meets the inevitability of death in a form of happy nihilism.
Discover the early works of Mia Enell in this collection of paintings and drawings. Click here to check for used copies of "Mia Enell: Paintings and Drawings" on Amazon and explore the foundations of her unique artistic style.
Trusting her intuitive process, Enell distills disparate thoughts and images into deeply resonant ambiguous works. Born in Sweden, she is best known for her paintings and drawings that explore the eccentricities of her inner life. Drawing from her Scandinavian roots, Enell employs dark humor to address themes traditionally considered somber, flattening taboos into comic parables to make difficult truths more digestible. Her work is rooted in visions and haiku-like phrases drawn from dreams, allowing the unconscious to shape her creative process. Like strange, stray ideas that drift through semi-conscious thought, Enell’s paintings and drawings are novel negotiations of language and real life. Her subjects are imbued with a delicate, quiet charge, one that each viewer will activate in their own way.
A distinctive relationship between word and image emerges with each work. Her paintings are screenshots of an ongoing stream of free association. “I often wake up at night with clear visions or words that later develop into a painting,” Enell explains. Monumental figures, many of them women, populate her compositions. “Are they women because I am one myself, or because women are finally emerging from under something that has held them back for so long?” With bold outlines, flat planes, and vivid shapes, Enell renders the unconscious hyper-visible—an elephant in the room.
In Holding the Void, a phone, a grave, or perhaps deep space, becomes a site for renewal as green sprouts emerge. Small shimmering details—a rose, a seascape, glimmers of gold—evoke quiet hope amid uncertainty. Running Tubs shows two bathtubs leaping with animal legs, while River People features interconnected figures in a delta of arms and legs as they hold hands upside and down mapping a river. Disco to Death is an invitation to reflect on what it means to let go, to fully embrace the fragility, complexity, and interconnectedness of life.
Select exhibitions include: Sorbonne Art Gallery, Paris, FR (2024); TIAB – The Immigrant Artist Biennial, New York, NY (2023); Drawing Biennial, Drawing Room, London, UK (2021); COD – Center for Openness and Dialogue, Tirana, Albania (2018); Arena Vestfossen, Norway (2013); Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden (2011). She is a recipient of honors such as The Elfi von Kantzow Alvin Art Award (2021) and The American-Scandinavian Society, Cultural Grant Award (2004).
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