Biography Trudy Benson (born 1985 in Richmond, Virginia) lives and works in New York. She received her MFA from the Pratt Institute (New York) and BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond). Benson’s work explores painterly layering as both image and process, probing how visual hierarchies are constructed and perceived. Her compositions reference systems of organization, including grids, networks, and sequences, while remaining fluid. Through her use of gestural impasto marks, as well as masking, taping, and airbrushed line work, Benson builds densely layered surfaces that foreground the act of painting itself.

The works oscillate between structure and disarray, navigating shifting spatial relationships and perceptual depth. Sloppy tables and shifting squares draw attention not only to the interaction of layers but to the mechanisms through which pictorial hierarchies are formed and images are interpreted.

Her work is often discussed in relation to the “digital turn” in contemporary abstraction. Benson has described her early works as “still lifes of digital programs,” and her visual language echoes the aesthetics of early image-manipulation software, screen-based gestures, and the transient logic of digital space. While firmly rooted in painting’s material and historical concerns, her practice engages both modernist abstraction and contemporary visual culture, expanding its visual grammar through contemporary modes of seeing.

The resulting works are paradoxical: highly formal yet referential, autonomous yet deeply embedded within an expanded archive of abstraction. Her lighter gestural marks resemble the traces of fingers on screens, ghostly smudges that hover between intention, expression, and abstraction of the self, as their loose interconnectedness echoes the transitory logic of digital space.

Benson has presented solo exhibitions at Miles McEnery Gallery (New York), Galerie Krinzinger (Vienna), Loyal (Stockholm), Ceysson & Bénétière (Paris and Saint-Étienne), Ribordy Thetaz (Geneva), Massif Central (Brussels), Team Bungalow (Los Angeles), Lyles & King and Half Gallery (New York), Dio Horia (Mykonos), and Weber Fine Art (Greenwich, CT). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions and galleries including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Torrance Art Museum (Los Angeles), Krinzinger Schottenfeld (Vienna), m.simons (Amsterdam). Her work is held in public and private collections, including the Aïshti Foundation (Beirut), Saatchi Gallery (London), Portland Museum of Art (Maine), Hudson Valley MOCA (Peekskill, NY), the Schwartz Art Collection at Harvard Business School (Boston), and the collections of Beth Rudin DeWoody and Susan and Michael Hort (New York).

Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

2024
XSTATIC, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Nothing Net, Ceysson & Bénétière, Lyon, France
Dis/Order (with Russell Tyler), Louis Buhl Gallery, Detroit, MI

2023
Plastic Paintings, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria
Trudy Benson, Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT

2022
zzzzzzzzzzzzz, with Russell Tyler, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY
4EVA, with Russell Tyler, Gaa Projects, Cologne, Germany

2021
WAVES, SUNNY, New York, NY
Hard Color Heat Wave, Massif Central, Brussels, Belgium
WAVES, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
/ Z / Z /, Ceysson & Bénétière, Saint-Étienne, France

2020
Join, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2018
Cuts, Paints, Team (Bungalow), Los Angeles, CA
Closer Than They Appear, Lyles & King, New York, NY
Infinite Spiral, Dio Horia, Mykonos, Greece

2017
TT52, with Yann Gerstberger, Lyles & King, New York, NY
Garden in Motion, Ceysson & Bénétière, Paris, France
Trudy Benson, Ribordy Contemporary, Geneva, Switzerland

2016
Cosmicomics, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Luxembourg
Spooky Action at a Distance, Half Gallery, New York, NY

2015
Shapes of Things, Lisa Cooley, New York, NY
Retrospective Gallery, with Russell Tyler, Hudson, NY
East Hampton Shed, with Russell Tyler, East Hampton, NY

2013
PAINT, Horton Gallery, New York, NY

2011
Actual/Virtual, Mike Weiss Gallery, New York, NY

2010
Space Jam, Freight + Volume, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2025
Massif Central x McLennon Pen at Co, McLennon Pen Co. Gallery, Austin, TX
Kayrock Editions, New Paltz, NY
Line Load, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY
Soft Chaos, Ceysson & Bénétière, Koerich, Luxembourg
Small Paintings Show: XXS, Curated by Wendy White, Brintz + County Gallery, Palm Beach, FL

2024
The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970-2020, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
All Bangers, All The Time: 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Holiday, Harper’s, New York, NY
Artists in Residence 2023, Krinzinger Schottenfeld, Vienna, Austria

2023
I AM THE PASSENGER , Mother, Beacon, NY
(Mostly) Women (Mostly) Abstract, Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Curated By: Nazif Lopulissa, m.simons, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2022
Why I Make Art, Curated by Brian Alfred, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Sunrise/Sunset, SUNNY NY, New York, NY

2021
Her Dark Materials, Curated by Philippa Adams, Eye of the Huntress, London, England
Phase 1, The Hole, East Hampton, NY
Light, Curated by Rico Gatson, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY
Path of the Storm, SUNNY NY, New York, NY
Group Show, RIBORDY THETAZ, Geneva, Switzerland
Group Exhibition, Weber Fine Art, Greenwich, CT
Unearthed By JC, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, LA

2020
Accrochage, RIBORDY THETAZ, Geneva, Switzerland
True Lines, Over the Influence, Los Angeles, CA
The Hundredth Exhibition, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2019
Decoy, Curated by Marc Mitchell, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR
New Edition: Print from the Past, Present, and Future at Pratt, Curated by Caitlin Riordan and Grayson Cox, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
Rise, RIBORDY THETAZ, Geneva, Switzerland
Le ciel, l’eau, les dauphins, la vierge, les flics, le sang des nobles, l’ONU, l’Europe, les casques bleus, Facebook, Twitter; Forde, Geneva, Switzerland

2018
MOONDOG, East Hampton Shed, East Hampton, NY
10 Years in Luxembourg, Ceysson & Bénétière, Wandhaff, Luxembourg
Set Adrift on Memory Bliss, Pablo’s Birthday, New York, NY
Group Exhibition, Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2017
Come as You Are, Galerie Antoine Ertaskiran, Montreal, CA
Post Analog Painting II, The Hole, New York, NY
Pro Forma: Context and Meaning in Abstraction, Curated by Vittorio Colaizzi, Work Release Gallery, Norfolk, VA
Unobstructed Views, Hawkins Ferry House, Grosse Point Shores, MI

2016
Bodacioussss, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO
Re-Planetizer, Curated by The Pit, Regina Rex, NY
Splotch, Sperone Westwater, New York, NY
The City & The City, Denny Gallery, New York, NY
Non Figuration - un regain d’Intérêt?, Centre d’art, Meymac, France
9999, The Fireplace Project, East Hampton, NY
Image Tech: Making Pictures in a Post-Digital Age, curated by Mauro Zamora, The Art Gallery at the College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ

2015
PaintersNYC, Páramo, Guadalajara, MX; and Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños, Oaxaca, MX
Feed the Meter, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Wandhaff, Luxembourg
Let’s Go Away for Awhile, Curated by Erik den Breejen and Maria Calandra, One Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY
Swingers WKND, Curated by Tribble & Mancenido, Brooklyn, NY
Anti-Fair, Harper’s Books popup at the Carlyle Hotel, New York
Post-Analog Painting, The Hole, New York, NY

2014
Go With the Flow, The Hole, New York, NY
Sunscreen, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY
Abstract America Today, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
OK Great Thanks This Is So Ridiculous, ACME, LA, CA; and DCKT, New York, NY
This One’s Optimistic, Pincushion, New Britain Museum of Art, New Britain, CT
Material Images, Johannes Vogt Gallery, New York, NY
The Last Brucennial, Bruce High Quality Foundation, New York, NY

2013
Merge Visible, Horton Gallery, New York, NY
SPLAZITCH, Side Effects Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Paint On, Paint Off, Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY
Windows, Denny Gallery, New York, NY
XSTRACTION, The Hole, New York, NY
Paradox Maintenance Technicians, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA

2012
Aggro Crag, Bosi Contemporary, New York, NY
Where My Cones At?, curated by Ryan Travis Christian, Double Break, San Diego, CA
Pratt Alumni Painters, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
Spindles, curated by Adam Mignanelli, Kinfolk Studios, Brooklyn, NY
WET WET, curated by the BLAAAHg, Brooklyn, NY
Eileen S. Kaminsky Family Foundation New Acquisitions and Prints, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
Idealizing the Imaginary: Illusion and Invention in Contemporary Painting, Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI

2010
Behind the Green Door, DNA Gallery, Provincetown, MA
Pratt MFA Exhibition, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY

2009
Fervor, Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, NY
Down Below It’s Chaos, ArtJail, New York, NY
A Piece, LABA Artists’ Space at the 14th Street Y, New York, NY

2008
Refinement, Aswoon Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Studio 23 Presents LOL the CommandP BFF 4EVA Portfolio, Transmission Gallery, Richmond, VA
Transmission Introduces Studio 23, Transmission Gallery, Richmond, VA

2007
24/7 Fire in the Hole, Plant Zero Art Center, Richmond, VA

Collections

Aishti Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, New York, NY
Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Arts, Peekskill, NY
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
Saatchi Gallery, London, England
Schwartz Art Collection, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA
Susan and Michael Hort Collection, New York, NY

Awards / Honors

2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant Nominee
2012 Painting Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts