Bio

Image of Jennifer Trouton, visual artist
Jennifer Trouton is visual artist  currently based in Queen street studios belfast
Trouton’s work has featured in group exhibitions nationally and internationally since graduating form the University of Ulster in the  mid nineties. These include ‘Resolutions’ at The Katzen Gallery, Washington DC, ‘Naciente❠at the The Guayasamin Gallery, Cuba and ‘Through our eyes’ at the Drawing Centre, New York. Solo exhibitions include the I8th Street Gallery Los Angeles, Spectrum Gallery London, The Ashford Gallery Dublin and The Fenderesky Gallery Belfast.
Her work has received continued support from the Arts Council including a funded residency at the Banff Centre of Arts in Banff Canada. 

Previous awards include a 3 month residency at the 18th Street Art Complex in Santa Monica USA, the COE (Clare Morris Open Exhibition, Ireland) Adjudicators’ Award awarded by Andrea Schlieker from the 4th Plinth project Trafalaga square and a Golden Fleece award hosted by the Liliias Mitchell Foundation.
Trouton’s work is held in numerous public collections including the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, The University of Ulster, Belfast HSC Trust,ESB Ireland, The office of Public works and British Midland Airlines.
In 2007 Trouton was shortlisted for Ireland’s prestigious AIB Artist of promise award.

Jennifer Trouton is an Irish artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans painting, embroidery, wallpaper, textiles, and artifacts. Formally, her work draws on the conventions of traditional still life painting, a genre historically associated with female artists—partly due to societal restrictions that prevented women from studying anatomy and, by extension, from engaging in the “high genres” of portraiture, history, and religious painting.
Through her exploration of spaces, objects, and personal histories, Trouton creates contemporary, subtly coded narratives that engage with themes of gender, class, and identity within the context of Irish history. Her still lifes blend mythological and historical references with the personal stories and meta-narratives of women. While deeply rooted in Irish culture, her work resonates with a thematic universality, reflecting the shared histories of women across the globe.
Trouton’s intricately rendered depictions of everyday objects transcend their surface appearance, offering symbolic “maps” that narrate the history of women through the artifacts that have borne witness to their lived experiences. In this way, her work underscores the rich, often overlooked histories embedded in the objects of daily life, revealing their deeper cultural and emotional significance.

Since graduating from Ulster University in the mid-nineties, Trouton’s work has been extensively exhibited both nationally and internationally. These include The Katzen Gallery, Washington DC, The Guayasamin Gallery, Cuba the Drawing Centre, New York and the Fanzoug Museum, Suzhou, China.  Throughout her career, Trouton’s work has garnered numerous awards, including the Golden Fleece Award, the Clare Morris Open, the RHA  Keating/McLaughlin Award, the RUA Tyrone Guthrie Residency Award, and in 2020 the RUA Watercolour Prize. In 2007, Trouton was a finalist for the AIB Artist of Promise Award.  In 2022 she received the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s highest accolade, the Major Individual Artist Award.  She has also been awarded residencies in New York, Los Angeles, China, Canada, and Ireland.

Trouton’s work is held in numerous public and private collections including the  Office of Public Works, Arts Council of Ireland, Irish State Collection at the Crawford, ESB Ireland, Arts Council of  Northern Ireland, Ulster Museum, Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University,  NI Department of Finance & Personnel, HSC Trust, Allianz Insurance, XL Insurance and David Roberts Foundation London.