Overview

B. 1969, Lødingen, Norway

Lives and works in Oslo, Norway

 

Trude Viken is a ‘colorist’ without restrictions. Her paintings are saturated with swirls of fleshtones, ashy greys and witchy greens coupled with bright red, orange, yellow, and luminous pinks. The smell of oil paint lingers on and tones, both earthy and unnatural, elicit both eroticism and repulsion. Viken’s work requires an audience for its physicality, a terrain of oil paint. In this way, they are landscapes of weather as unpredictable as mood. A face becomes a hairy green mass with bubble gum pink base, white strokes like the edges of clouds or wings. Her portraits from everyday life develop into fantasies expressing our interior lives and our most palpable feelings, they seduce through their psychological penetration. With Viken’s hand, layers of oil paint become whirling eyes, nose, mouth, ecstatic grimaces or smirks, finished when she decides so. Rows of twisted, kneaded faces hung together like a ghoulish family album of passing moods and impulse. The final marks different from the original swaths. Shapes are dissolved as the layers of paint can be repainted many times; almost anything is allowed. Viken's first solo exhibition in New York was at Fortnight Institute, New York in 2018. 

Works
Biography

B. 1969, Lødingen, Norway

Lives and works in Oslo, Norway

 

EDUCATION

2012-2015: Studied at Rommen Art School, Oslo, Norway

2009-2012: Det tverrfaglige kunstinstitutt (DTK), Bærum, Norway

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024:  Inside Out, Belenius Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

2023:  Night Crawlers, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY

2022:  Double Portraits, OTP, Copenhagen, Denmark

2022:  Midnight Activities, Belenius Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden

2021:  Midnight Theater, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY

2021:  Night Eyes, Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Vestfossen, Norway

2021: The Tendon Blanket Goes Down at NightfallBuer Gallery, Oslo, Norway

2019:  Unmasked, M + B, Los Angeles, USA

2018:  Faces and Traces, Fortnight Institute, New York, NY

2016:  Maskefall, curated by Palazzo Stabile, Galleri Albin Upp, Oslo, Norway

2015:  Debutantveggen, Galleri Ramfjord, Oslo, Norway

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023: Jari Lager Gallery, Art Busan Sør Korea, Busan, South Korea

2023: The Collector, KHÅK Kunsthall, Ålesund, Norway

2023: Inside Out, Kaviar Factory, Lofoten, Norway

2023: Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium, Nesten Voksen, Vestfossen, Norway

2023: Strange Figures, Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY

2022: Good to See You, Galleri Golsa, Oslo, Norway

2022: Chart Art Fair, København

2022: Person(a), Venus Over Manhattan, New York, NY

2022: Åpningsutstillingen, National Museum Norway, Oslo, Norway

2022: Lost in a Spectacle curated by Saša Bogojev, Woah Gallery, Hong Kong

2021: I Have My Eye On You, Everyday Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium

2021: Hunters in the Snow, 303 Gallery, New York, NY

2020: Constellations, Buer Gallery, Oslo, Norway

2020:  Østlandsutstillingen, Kunstbanken Hedmark Kunstsenter, Buskerud Kunstsenter & Østfold Kunstsenter

2020: Ryszard Warsinski + Trude Viken, Bærum Kunsthall, Oslo, Norway

2020: Lit Naits, Mexico (Oh, Brother), QB Gallery, Oslo, Norway

2019: Edvard Munch`s studio, Oslo, with Markus Brendmoe, Stein Koksvik & Yngvar Larsen

2019: Velvet Ropes, Gallery Golsa, Oslo, Norway

2018: Bærum Kunsthall, grant exhibition, Fornebu, Norway

2018: Galleri Fineart, Oslo, Sommerutstillingen

2017: Østlandsutstillingen, 500 years of the Reformation, Oslo and Kiel, Germany

2016: Borders and Boundaries, Bærum Kunsthall, Fornebu, Norway

2016: Åpen dør, Kommunegården, Bærum BKIB - Bildende Kunstnere i Bærum, Fornebu, Norway

2016: Galleri Ramfjord, grant exhibition, Oslo, Norway

2015: In Between, Bærum Kunsthall, Fornebu, Norway

2015: Romeriksutstillingen, Ullensaker Kunstforening

2015: Romeriksutstillingen, Lørenskog Kunstforening

2015: Galleri Ramfjord, grant exhibition, Oslo, Norway

2015: Kunstland, Lomsjøen

2014: SUM Rådhusgalleriet, with Eva Galligani & Eline Huitfelt, Oslo, Norway

2013: Galleri Albin Upp, Oslo, Norway

2012: Rådhusgalleriet, graduation exhibition – DTK/Det Tverrfagelige Kunstinstitutt, Oslo, Norway

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Griffith, Will. “Why Surrealism Now?” The Baer Faxt. May 13, 2022. Online. 

Stamler, Hannah. “Trude Viken, Fortnight Institute.” Artforum. October, 2021. Print. 

Kvernbråten, Kine. “At Trude Viken ikke kom inn på Kunstakademiet stinker bullshit.” Subjekt. June 7, 2021. Online. 

“Malerier Som Treffer Deg Hardt Imagen (Paintings that hit you hard in the stomach).” Morgenbladet. June 3, 2021. Online. 

Entian, Patrik. “Humoresker över tillvaron.” Omkonst. April 6, 2021. Online. 

Trude Viken: Night Eyes. Published by Vestfossen Kunstlabratorium & Ansten Press. 2021. 

Irving, Kirsten. “‘The Ward Masquerade’ and Other Poems.” Evergreen. 2020. Online. 

Stoltenberg, Hanna. “Den norske hjelpepleiernes bilder har skapt furore i New York.” D2. July 19, 2018. Online. 

Halle, Howard. “Trude Viken, ‘Faces and Traces.’” TimeOut NY. May 21, 2018. Online. 

Tilley, John Martin. “Faces and Traces.” Office Magazine. May 16, 2018. Online. 

Drawings. Published by Innen Zines (Zurich, Switzerland). 2018.

 

 

Publications

2021: Documentary Film: Trude Viken og Edvard Munch - Kunstnerliv, NRK

2021: Night Eyes, Vestfossen Kunstlabratorium, Ansten Press

2018: Zine, Drawings, Innen Books, Zurich, Switzerland

Press
Exhibitions
Publications
Bibliography

Griffith, Will. “Why Surrealism Now?” The Baer Faxt. May 13, 2022. Online. 

Stamler, Hannah. “Trude Viken, Fortnight Institute.” Artforum. October, 2021. Print. 

Kvernbråten, Kine. “At Trude Viken ikke kom inn på Kunstakademiet stinker bullshit.” Subjekt. June 7, 2021. Online. 

“Malerier Som Treffer Deg Hardt Imagen (Paintings that hit you hard in the stomach).” Morgenbladet. June 3, 2021. Online. 

Entian, Patrik. “Humoresker över tillvaron.” Omkonst. April 6, 2021. Online. 

Trude Viken: Night Eyes. Published by Vestfossen Kunstlabratorium & Ansten Press. 2021. 

Irving, Kirsten. “‘The Ward Masquerade’ and Other Poems.” Evergreen. 2020. Online. 

Stoltenberg, Hanna. “Den norske hjelpepleiernes bilder har skapt furore i New York.” D2. July 19, 2018. Online. 

Halle, Howard. “Trude Viken, ‘Faces and Traces.’” TimeOut NY. May 21, 2018. Online. 

Tilley, John Martin. “Faces and Traces.” Office Magazine. May 16, 2018. Online. 

Drawings. Published by Innen Zines (Zurich, Switzerland). 2018.