Faces and Traces, 2018
Fortnight Institute, New York
Fortnight Institute is pleased to present Faces and Traces, a solo exhibition by the Norwegian artist Trude Viken. This will be her New York and US debut.
We look at faces every day. But seldom have we seen any like those Trude Viken captures in her mind. Her portraits appear in her fantasy, and they find their expressive and emotional output as she works with them on the canvas. Her Diary Notes are small in size, but they capture a wide range of feelings and gestures. These portraits might look like a nightmare of everyday life, just as well as they might evoke our pity and compassion. Trude has a vivid imagination. Her portraits could be seen as an interpretation of the author Oscar Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde’s 1890-novel the main character sells his soul in order to stay as beautiful as he is as a young man. The result is that the painted portrait of Dorian Gray ages and decays, while he stays young and beautiful despite of his hedonistic life.
Trude Viken’s colorful, expressive and emotional paintings have gotten a lot of attention in social media. She has influential followers, and her posts are often redistributed. But seeing her images on a screen is nothing compared to the real thing. Her paintings have an extreme, physical presence with rich impasto, shiny paint and strong colors. Her portraiture is unconventional, and her “family” of individual faces makes up a body of work that is most impressive.
Trude Viken has worked on the Diary Notes-series for a long time. In nearly four years she has produced more than 100 portraits in the A4 format. She also works in larger formats. In addition to her Diary Notes, Fortnight Institute will present a limited number of her Double Portraits and a few more paintings. A number of black and white drawings will also be available. These drawings are published in the renowned Innen magazine. The zine will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.
Faces and Traces, 100 Dairy Notes, Oil on Canvas, 30x24cm / 120x480cm, 2014-2018
