Trude Viken
Summer Play
29 June – 27 July, 2025
JARILAGER Gallery Cologne
JARILAGER Gallery Cologne is pleased to present Summer Play, Trude Viken’s debut solo show in Germany. Born in 1969 in Lødingen, Viken is now considered one of Norway’s leading contemporary painters. Yet, her big breakthrough came suddenly and late in life. As a teenager, her parents encouraged her to pursue a stable career in healthcare. Instead of focusing on her art, she took up work as a nurse’s aide. Viken describes the years of her adult life as swift and hazy; time passing by too fast amid marriage, children and domestic routines. However, she kept painting in private. In her late forties, she applied to the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and was rejected. Still, around 2010, she chose to commit fully to painting and began sharing her work online, where she was ultimately discovered by the “king” of New York’s art scene, Richard Prince. After a striking solo show in Manhattan in 2018, her career escalated quickly.
Viken speaks of Edvard Munch as her first love. She used to draw a blue line between them: Munch, the icon of Norwegian art, a childless bachelor who lived the artist myth until his death; she, a caregiver who raised a family while watching her dream nearly slip away. Two painters whose lives could hardly be more distant. But this line has blurred over time. Today, Viken proudly calls herself an artist. Her paintings shape the new canon – and, just like Munch’s, dare to “scream”.
Read more on the website down below.
