Artist Profile: Aneka Ingold
Published January 1, 2017 by Nicole Webb
Anneka Ingold
b. 1979
Within each piece I create, there is a calling to explore and understand the female experience. There is a part of me described in each character as well as an attempt to represent a shared female experience. I document and invent women that I hope will teach me about what it means to be a woman. – Aneka Ingold
Aneka Ingold graduated from Grand Valley State University in 2003, pursuing art and jewelry design. Her works examine the transition of the body and self as the human form. She gathers images, both contemporary and historic from books, magazines, and photographs and then combines them to create allegories. The stories she tells are not just her own, but those of her family, friends and other women who have made an impact on her life. Ultimately, she creates images to portray the struggle of womanhood as well as the triumph.
To create her narratives, Ingold combines flat color and pattern with realism. She combines mixed media techniques, drawing, and painting to create a single image.
Ingold was named the winner of the first Bennett Prize (2019), the largest ever awarded solely to women painters. The Prize is meant to propel the careers of women figurative realist painters from across the country.
Learning Resources
Borrowed Art: Bringing Collections Together
Margin to Mainstream – Recognizing Women Artists
Aneka Ingold, Vesna, mixed media on panel, 2021, 2024.22.1.
Aneka Ingold, Self Portrait on Bed, acrylic on canvas, 2023.10.2.
Aneka Ingold, Portrait with Yellow Bird, acrylic on canvas, 2023.10.1.