Elisha Enfield

Elisha Enfield’s work delves into the layered history of human rituals. A UK-based painter, she draws from stories of fire and funerary rites to explore the macabre beauty of practices that span joy, reverence, and loss. Weaving together memory and myth, her paintings navigate the spectral traces of history, revealing the fragile boundary between presence and absence—evoking moments where the past lingers just beneath the surface. Recent works, including the Geist series, are inspired by archaeological sites and ancient burial customs, such as the Danish Vedbæk grave of a mother and child laid to rest upon a swan’s wing. Through these images, Enfield considers how rituals of mourning and remembrance help us navigate loss, creating a dialogue between past and present. Enfield studied painting at the University of Brighton, graduating in 2011. Her work has been exhibited widely, with selections for the BEEP Painting Biennial, John Ruskin Prize, and ING Discerning Eye, where she was awarded both the Landscape and Midlands Prizes. In 2022, she won Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year, and her work is held in public and private collections internationally.