Trude Viken

Trude Viken, born in 1969 in Lødingen, lives and works in Oslo. In 2018, Viken debuted and broke through internationally. This happened suddenly – in New York. Viken's artistry has been compared to Francis Bacon and James Ensor, and her exhibition was recommended among the top five that week. It all started via Instagram, where the American artist Richard Prince, who is well represented in the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, discovered and commented on Trude Viken's pictures and eventually contacted her because he was interested in buying the pictures.

The portraits and figure compositions do not aim to be "beautiful" in an external sense but beautiful in their naked vulnerability. What is beauty, what is beautiful? Opinions are divided, and it depends on whom you ask. However, the most beautiful thing for many is the deeply human – vulnerable encounters between people. And it is precisely the human, dynamic, and psychological everyday poetry she describes in her paintings. The human pulse and how life pulls us in different directions with emotions and needs. Viken's colors, shapes, and strokes, the painting process itself, become images of life itself. In many ways, the pictures are about the creative power as part of the human – and as a survivor.

Why is Trude Viken interesting?

Trude Viken has found her very unique expression, an expression that she carries forward into the large figure compositions. The intuitive and fresh motifs are displayed in a series of separate and collective exhibitions internationally.