Trudy Benson

Life

She was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1985. She received an MFA from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is represented by Lisa Cooley.

Trudy Benson is known for her large scale abstract paintings that utilize large swaths and globs of paint. Her style was influenced by early computer painting programs, such as MacPaint and Windows Paint. In December 2012, Scott Indrisek wrote for Modern Painters that, "This young Pratt-educated painter is moving away from her previous cartoonishly figurative efforts and toward a maximalist abstraction. The effect is a bit like a 1980s geometry textbook spazzing out and exploding on the wall. Benson works within a deliciously caffeinated language of gestures and shapes-the smear, the dripping line, rainbows, grids, circles-to create compositions that pair smooth, glossy sections with paint applied so thickly it resembles Play-Doh."

Exhibitions

1. Shapes of Things, Lisa Cooley, New York, NY
2. Paint, Horton Gallery, New York, NY
3. Paradox Maintenance Technicians, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
4. Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation New Acquisitions, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
5. Idealizing the Imaginary: Illusion and Invention in Contemporary Painting, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI