“Torild Stray is a painter of materiality and immateriality. She paints the ethereal presence of people. Her images of humans are never what they seem. Ordinary is not her vocabulary. Auras of the intangible are suspended invisibly near real and tangible figures and objects. Stray´s search for the perceptual contains an imagination of the spiritual. She paints obsessively, with a passion, for the unattainable presence of a tenuous world. She is a true painter. “
Graham Nickson, (30 August 1946 – 28 January 2025) New York, Artist and Dean of the New York Studio School
“Torild Stray shines her gaze on New York City and the human figure with the same reflective serenity. The work produced has a unique dreamy quality, yet asserts its voice strongly. Stray is a painter dealing with subtle, yet deeply human subject matters in her work”
Arabella von Arx, Gallery Particulier, Brooklyn, New York 2022
Excerpts : TStray Artist Talk Brooklyn NY 2022
https://youtu.be/LpKQTn9J9J4?si=QwWjhcRhhNwCUFPY
“Stray is an outstanding colorist and a highly skilled painter. Using broad brushstrokes and bold colors, she creates vivid, powerful, and expressive figurative paintings that evoke joy and hope”
Høyersten Contemporary Gallery, Bergen April 2025
“Stray's practice is based in a deep and beautiful drawing practice regardless of medium , paint , charcoal- when her hand opens and the form is defined by gesture and an innate understanding of value shift - her content both allegorical and personal - breathe and allows one to focus simultaneously on her hand and her heart.”
Michael David Gallery, NYC 2019
Excerpts from Exhibition Catalog, New York 2021 : The Return of a View
Installed within the Memorial Museum, Stray’s drawing provides a two-fold opportunity to consider the view in its pre-9/11 and post-tragedy contexts. Like many participants in the World Views program in the latter 1990s, the artist was exhilarated by the expansive sky and mesmerizing weather patterns outside the narrow window slats of her studio. She was also intrigued by the architectonic forms and animation of New York City visible 870 feet below. Those dynamics influenced the work emerging from her residency. An “inner vision took hold,” driving her to deconstruct the city and then rebuild it, Stray explained to colleagues at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. “I came to see the buildings as extensions of human beings which took the place of figures in my paintings. At a higher level of abstraction, the city itself was an organic being: alive and constantly changing.” The artist’s fluid, confident draftsmanship aided her efforts to translate that perpetual transience onto paper.
The view’s timestamp is also significant. Stray commemorates the special chemistry of dusk, not the clarity of daylight nor the deeper mystery (and glamor) of Manhattan after dark. In her native Norway, this distinctive twilight passage - referenced as “the Blue Hour” - is understood more as a verb than a noun, she has noted. The artwork’s title, New York Metamorphosis emphasizes that concept of flux. Intellectually, however, the title also allows readings of the drawing imported by visitors familiar with the events of September 11, 2001.
Excerpts from Exhibition Catalog text byJanSeidler Ramirez, Chief Curator & Executive Vice President of Collections, The National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, New York 2021.
Torild Stray
New York City 1998 Artist Statement
World Trade Center, World Views Artist Residency 1997-98
My recent body of work is made from the 85th floor of the World Trade Center. Until last summer, I have spent my time working inside my studio in Brooklyn. Moving from there to a studio where I had the whole of New York City at my feet was initially overwhelming. The subject was incredibly complex, and the depth of field was infinite. The biggest challenge was choosing what to focus on to convey the feeling of the city - that is, using the process of looking to go beyond the literal.
My inner vision directed me as I deconstructed the city and rebuilt it on canvas. The buildings, which I came to view as extensions of human beings, took the place of figures in my paintings. At a higher level of abstraction, the city itself was an organic being, alive and constantly changing.
Some have asked me if I am now a "cityscape painter?" My response is both yes and no. Yes - I will continue painting New York City, and possibly other cities around the world. But no - I won't limit myself to cityscapes. I will also continue to work with the figure, both in and out of the studio, informed by my experience on Floor 85.
BT Iterview, Brooklyn 2006, Torild Stray quote
"Some would argue that painting is dead. That's just nonsense. Painting allows for new interpretations. Look at all the possibilities, says Torild Stray, gesturing. You can make the picture as complex as you want. The artist is the medium. Pictures and paint are an ancient way of communicating, and they have incredible potential." 