Sarah McEneaney

A painter diarist, Sarah McEneany brandishes a strong outsider undercurrent in her treatment of herself, her home and studio, and her Philadelphia neighborhood. With a naïve verisimilitude, she accounts for every detail in a colorful manner, but leaves her paintings flat and fantastical in the manner of the Persian, Indian and Early Renaissance art that inspires her. Florine Stettheimer, Reginald Marsh and Frida Kahlo also come to mind when considering her canvases, as they too are artists who have narrated their own lives, while in the process depicting life conducted in and around the studio. Included in this catalogue, which accompanies the first museum exhibition of McEneaney's paintings, are a lengthy essay by ICA Senior Curator Ingrid Schaffner, as well as numerous shorter essays on individual paintings.