Trude Viken, Twilight Dwellers at Ricco/Maresca, New York

Trude Viken’s debut exhibition with Ricco/Maresca “Twilight Dwellers” will open with our Annual Winter Party on Friday, February 28 (6 – 9 PM) during the week of the Outsider Art Fair. 

 

Viken was born in 1969 in Lødingen, Norway. Growing up in a nautical town, she spent her early days committed to the pursuit of art, however, this path was altered in her teenage years by societal pressures and her parents’ wish for her to establish a stable life and career in healthcare. Instead of focusing on her art, Viken took up work as a nurse’s aide, a profession that permeates her paintings to this day—through cross symbolism, references to healthcare uniforms, and a dedication to portraying the interior lives and roles of women.

Viken continued to create art in private and her breakthrough came in 2018. Her artistic journey since has been nothing short of relentless.

 

Viken is known for her augmented depictions of women. The artist has explored what it means to portray the female figure in both its projection to the outside world and its interiority. Her use of color is unconventional and fearless, as is her use of paint; she often applies her oil paints in thick, highly physical layers, from which she will carve shapes and features until the surface appears almost sculptural. Her paintings are suggestive of a tactile truth, an emotional inquiry that is dogged and yet still fresh, highly sophisticated and yet never overworked. 

February 19, 2025