BIOGRAPHY

Torild Stray is a painter based on the west coast of Norway. Her practice is informed by a sustained engagement with light, landscape, and lived experience. Raised in this region, she developed an early sensitivity to the shifting visual conditions of the Norwegian coast, where changing weather and atmospheric light significantly shape perception. Occasional appearances of the aurora borealis, as well as formative years spent in northern Norway with its extremes of light and darkness, have contributed to an enduring focus on light as both subject and structural principle within her work.

Her perspective has further been shaped by extensive travel in Southeast Asia and Tibet, undertaken over the course of a year. This period included a serious illness, an experience that informed a continued interest in fragility, scale, and endurance as both perceptual and existential conditions.

Stray’s artistic education includes studies at Strykejernet Art School in Oslo and the Nordic School of Art in Karleby, Finland. She was also accepted to Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden, and completed her studies at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture (NYSS). In addition, she studied art history at the University of Bergen.

She spent over two decades in New York City, where she developed her practice within a rigorous and dynamic artistic environment. During this time, she worked consistently within the city’s museum context and contemporary art scene, an experience that has had a lasting impact on her artistic development. Following her studies, she co-founded and maintained a shared live/work studio in Brooklyn with international colleagues. She later relocated her studio practice from a loft on Dean Street in Prospect Heights to Industry City, Brooklyn.

Stray was selected for a studio residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) at the World Trade Center in New York, where she worked from studios on the 85th and 91st floors in the late 1990s, prior to the destruction of the towers in 2001. This residency constitutes an important part of her professional trajectory. Her work is also included in the collection of the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York.

She has received the New York Times Scholarship and the Agnes Gund Scholarship, among other awards, and has participated in residencies including the DNA Artist Residency in Provincetown.

She currently lives and works on the west coast of Norway, where she maintains an active studio practice in a former industrial building. She also teaches drawing and leads workshops for Kode Museum and other institutions, in addition to undertaking selected private and public commissions.

Selected recent exhibitions include: Eros Series, Høyersten Contemporary (2025); Visions and Views, Gallery Particulier, Brooklyn, New York (2022); Folk og folkeliv, Oseana Art Centre (2025–26); and Shifting Matter, a three-person exhibition, Gyldenpris Kunsthall (2026).

She is a member of the Norwegian Visual Artists Association (NBK), the Norwegian Association of Painters (LNM), and the Association of Visual Artists in Hordaland (BKFH).

Please contact us for a full CV.

Torild Stray. Photo: Jakob Kaminski 2025

Stray painting. Photo by studio-assistant