Trudy Benson
Acrylic and oil on canvas
61 x 61cm
24.02 x 24.02 in
Acrylic and oil on canvas
127 x 116.8cm
50.00 x 45.98 in
Acrylic and oil on canvas
127 x 116.8cm
50.00 x 45.98 in
Acrylic and oil on canvas
154.9 x 167.6cm
60.98 x 65.98 in
Oil, spray paint and acrylic on canvas
155 x 168cm
61.02 x 66.14 in
Oil, spray paint and acrylic on canvas
110 x 120cm
43.31 x 47.24 in
Acrylic and oil on canvas
154.94 x 167.64cm
61.00 x 66.00 in
Acrylic and oil on canvas
81 x 94cm
31.89 x 37.01 in
Oil, spray paint and acrylic on canvas
195.6 x 203.2cm
77.01 x 80.00 in
Trudy Benson
Trudy Benson was born in Richmond, Virginia
She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Education
2010 MFA, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, USA
2007 BFA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA
Presentation
One of the reasons I fell in love with painting was the sensation of walking into a room and being able to smell the paint. Surface is so important to me for the same reason, there is a physical presence that is immediately apparent when you are actually in a space with a painting. I also enjoy using colors and color combinations that can’t quite be photographed the same way that our eyes see the color IRL. It’s almost a fetish to have so many sensory qualities in an essentially 2-D object, especially these days when almost anything can be experienced virtually. The idea that a painting, which at one time was a virtual experience, a window, can now be decidedly phenomenal is something that has driven the work for years.
Trudy Benson
Awards and Grants
2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Nominee
2012 Painting Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts
Trudy Benson's paintings are notable because her method is laid bare for any viewer willing to look deeply. The paintings start with a raw canvas and a commercial airbrush. Benson sprays broad gestures or stream of consciousness doodling then she adds blocky cell-like structures of solid bold color that obscure and activate the surface with dynamic shapes. She often slathers lines of paint extruded from a pastry bag adding another dimension of depth and activity to the surface.
The contrast between the wispy spray and thick frosting-like paint creates a dramatic sense of space. If the eyesight is softened the hard-edge planes lift and hover off of the surface, sharpen your vision again and the heavily physical surfaces regain their heft and presence. The difference between a substantial grounded shape and the ethereal atmosphere is a key into what makes Benson's work ebulliently muscular and airy simultaneously.
Trudy Benson belongs to the generation that inherited a society where computers and technology are seemingly like air or water, not optional but an overarching aspect of reality. The idea that we can « unhook » or opt out of social media is becoming quaint in the blink of an eye. Benson's paintings seem to ask questions about the nature of newness and the converse state of nostalgia and memory.
The nostalgic quality that is embedded in the paintings is seemingly about the rapid pace that the newest computer tools begin look simplistic or silly. Benson's paintings take a similiarly investigative look at high-modernist abstraction; a language, like computer software, that is full of codes and rules. Benson's intuitive improvisations on these codes offers us glimpses into how our lives are shaped design and visual logic. It is the insouciant attraction to both the high and low of abstraction that recalls such American painters as Elizabeth Murray, Rebecca Morris and Katherine Bernhardt.
Benson has often talked about using primitive computer drawing tools like Macpaint as her preferred method for sketching out ideas before beginning a canvas. She often describes these tools as being left behind on old computers, in effect these programs are found or rehabilitated, as if through a happy accident. Benson finds pleasure in spotlighting the act of making painting as a step-by-step layering process. « Layers » is a term that any person familiar with using Photoshop or any other graphic computer program would recognize immediately.
But ultimately there is something exuberant rather than programmatic in the paintings : running late, rushing out the door, down the stairs... off to work. The happy push inside of each painting is urban, fun and utterly free.
Wallace Whitney
Trudy Benson, Saint-Etienne
January 21 - March 13, 2021
Trudy Benson, Paris
March 24 - May 13, 2017
Trudy Benson, Luxembourg
June 04 - July 23, 2016
Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
10 YEARS in Luxembourg, Wandhaff
June 02 - August 04, 2018
FEED THE METER, Wandhaff
September 26, 2015 - January 30, 2016
Upcoming shows
January 21 - March 13, 2021
Solo shows
Group Exhibition, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2016
Colaizzi, Vittorio, Joan Thorne, Analytic Ecstasy, Woman's Art Journal, été 2016
Herriman, Kat, How Five New York Art Couples Share Space, New York Times T Magazine, 11 février 2016
2015
Campbell, Andrianna, Frank Stella, Artforum.com, November 27, 2015.
Hogue, Chelsea, Summer is Over and We're All Going to Die, Autre Magazine, September 23, 2015.
Kopel, Dana, Tangible Textures: Trudy Benson and Russell Tyler at Retrospective Gallery, Modern Painters, November 2015.
Maine, Stephen, Trudy Benson, ARTnews, Summer 2015.
Trudy Benson: Shapes of Things, Time Out New York, April 1, 2015.
Goleas, Janet, Shed a Little, Blinnk.blogspot.com, June, 21, 2015.
Johnson, Paddy and Corinna Kirsch, We Went to Lisa Cooley and Thierry Goldberg: Good Painting, Bad Painting, ArtFCity.com, April 30, 2015.
Frederick, Jeff, Exhibition Review: Trudy Benson "Shapes of Things" Lisa Cooley, Wallscrawler.blogspot.com, May 1, 2015.
2014
Johnson, Halley, 11 Must-See Works at NADA Miami Beach, Artsy.net, December 5, 2014.
Consumer Reports: Trudy Benson, ARTnews, November 19, 2014.
Grayson, Kathy, Kathy Grayson's Punk Girl Power Painters, i-D Magazine, August 22, 2014.
Indrisek, Scott, 5 Must-See Gallery Shows: "Go With the Flow" and More, ArtInfo.com, August 7, 2014.
Micchelli, Thomas, The Familiar, the Boisterous, the Unexpected, and the Absurd, Hyperallergic.com, August 2, 2014.
One Burning Question with Trudy Benson, NY Arts, June 6, 2014.
Luke, Ben, Abstract America Today, exhibition review, London Evening Standard, May 28, 2014.
This Week's Best New Art, Time Out London, May 27, 2014.
Artist of the Week: Trudy Benson, LVL3media.com, February 10, 2014.
2013
Rosenberg, Karen, Trudy Benson: Paint, The New York Times, May 9, 2013.
Rivers, Tina, Windows, Critic's Picks, Artforum.com, November 19, 2013.
Goings On About Town: Short List, The New Yorker, June 3, 2013.
Brito, Maria, In the Studio with Trudy Benson, outtherenyc.com, December 14, 2013.
Stopa, Jason, Trudy Benson and the Nature of Paint, Whitewall Magazine, May 31, 2013.
Michelli, Thomas, Running the Gamut: Trudy Benson's Flamboyant Restraint, Hyperallergic, May 4, 2013.
The Lookout: A Weekly Guide to Shows You Won't Want to Miss, Art in America, May 2, 2013.
Trudy Benson: Digital You Can Touch, Lancia Trendvisions, April 10, 2013.
Stopa, Jason, Whitehot Watch: April 2013, Whitehot, April 2013.
Chapline, Jonathan, Trudy Benson - Navy Yard, #ffffff Walls, 2013.
Markus, Liz, Liz Markus Art Diary April 28 2013, Huffington Post Blog, April 28, 2013.
Johnson, Paddy, 8 Great Brooklyn Artists Under 30, The L Magazine, March 2013.
Studio Cats, Modern Painters, February 2013.
2012
Cover Image: NY Arts, Vol. 19, Fall 2012.
40 Under 40: Pratt's Rising Stars, PRATTFOLIO, Fall/Winter 2012.
Crowley, Huey, Studio Visit: Trudy Benson and Russell Tyler, Beautiful Decay, December 25, 2012.
Cox, Steven, In Dialogue: Trudy Benson Interview, Hunted Projects, December 2012.
Cover image, NY Arts Vol. 19, Fall 2012.
40 Under 40: Pratt's Rising Stars, PRATTFOLIO, Fall/Winter 2012.
Keeting, Zachary, Trudy Benson, September 2012, Gorky's Granddaughter, September 10, 2012.
Meier, Allison. One-Line Reviews: Our Staff's Pithy Takes On "This Nameless Spectacle," "The Feverish Library," And Other Ga Shows, September 7, 2012.
Indrisek, Scott. Trudy Benson: Studio Visit, Modern Painters Daily, September 4, 2012.
Meier, Allison. Three Summer MFA Shows Tackle Painting and its Discontent, Hyperallergic, July 26, 2012.
On the Up: Contemporary Artists We're Tipping for Success, Trudy Benson, Modern Edition, June 2012.
The Digital Canvas: New Technology and 21st Century Painting, Modern Edition, May/June 2012.
Harnish, Tracey. Not Dead Yet: Ten Questions - This Week - Trudy Benson, Huffington Post, March 8, 2012.
Scott, Ron. Contemporary Painting at Oakland University Gallery, art HOPPER, January 18, 2012.
Wolin, R. Joseph. Trudy Benson: Review, ARTnews, January 2012.
Indrisek, Scott. Reviews In Brief: New York, Modern Painters, January 2012.
2011
Keltner, Daniel Levis. Actual Virtual: The works of Trudy Benson, Precipitate Journal of the New Environmental Imagination, December 2011.
Stauffer, Tema. Trudy Benson; the Making of Actual/Virtual,The Mana Log, October 2011.
Vargas, Mauricio. Interview : Trudy Benson, the BLAAAHg, October 12, 2011.
Baker, R.C. Fall Arts: Art Picks, Village Voice, September 7, 2011.
2010
Brennan, Michael. In Conversation: Michael Brennan Interviews, Trudy Benson, NY Arts, Fall 2010.
Trudy Benson "Space Jam", New York Art Beat, May 18, 2010.
Kalm, James. Trudy Benson at Freight + Volume, The James Kalm Report, May 17, 2010.
Nathan, Emily. Material Girl, ArtSlant, May 16, 2010.
Indrisek, Scott. Trudy Benson, Modern Painters, May 13, 2010.
Space Jam, Fecal Face Dot Com, May 2010.
Retour à Brooklyn - Villa Balthazar
June 08, 2017
Trudy Benson - Garden in Motion, Paris
March 24, 2017
Trudy Benson - Garden in Motion
April 15, 2017
