Noah Becker
born in Cleveland, Ohio, 1970. lives and works in New York City.
CV
Noah Becker is an acclaimed oil painter with exhibitions at numerous international museums and galleries including How Soon is Now, curated by Kathleen Ritter at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2009. Becker was a semi-finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2009 and was included in NY Arts Magazine's “30 Artists to Watch in 2012” list. His upcoming exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Domus Artium Museum in Salamanca, Spain and the Rochester New Hampshire Museum of Fine Arts in 2014. Becker is a jazz saxophonist and the founding editor of Whitehot Magazine. He is also a contributing writer for Art in America, Interview Magazine, Canadian Art, the Huffington Post and ARTVOICES. Becker lives and works in New York City.
Noah Becker’s multimedia practice includes writing, publishing, and films, but he is best known for his paintings, which use the idiom of classical portraiture to explore the formal and allegorical possibilities of the human figure. The subjects of his compositions are conjured from memory and imagination, and bear archetypal names like “Wise One” and “The Aristocrat.”
“Portraits are traditionally about the figure being triumphant or existing in some kind of perfect world with perfect feelings,” Becker has said of his typological, metaphysical approach. “An artist does not always need to follow rules to make things like pictures of people.” Becker further examines art historical themes and tropes as the Editor-in-Chief of Whitehot Magazine.
CV
Noah Becker is an acclaimed oil painter with exhibitions at numerous international museums and galleries including How Soon is Now, curated by Kathleen Ritter at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2009. Becker was a semi-finalist in the RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2009 and was included in NY Arts Magazine's “30 Artists to Watch in 2012” list. His upcoming exhibitions include the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Domus Artium Museum in Salamanca, Spain and the Rochester New Hampshire Museum of Fine Arts in 2014. Becker is a jazz saxophonist and the founding editor of Whitehot Magazine. He is also a contributing writer for Art in America, Interview Magazine, Canadian Art, the Huffington Post and ARTVOICES. Becker lives and works in New York City.
Noah Becker’s multimedia practice includes writing, publishing, and films, but he is best known for his paintings, which use the idiom of classical portraiture to explore the formal and allegorical possibilities of the human figure. The subjects of his compositions are conjured from memory and imagination, and bear archetypal names like “Wise One” and “The Aristocrat.”
“Portraits are traditionally about the figure being triumphant or existing in some kind of perfect world with perfect feelings,” Becker has said of his typological, metaphysical approach. “An artist does not always need to follow rules to make things like pictures of people.” Becker further examines art historical themes and tropes as the Editor-in-Chief of Whitehot Magazine.
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NOAH BECKER
describes from Brooklyn, NYC what it is like to be waking up to another day of the COVID-19 pandemic in his city. March 20, 2020 |
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PAST EXHIBITIONS at Mónica Reyes Gallery
Noah Becker | For Men Who Appreciate History (2014)
The expressionless, at times almost vacant, stares of the figures in Noah Becker's paintings are rendered in soft brushstrokes and modelled with a limited colour palette. The distant characteristics of the sitters sets Becker's work apart from much portraiture in the frozen quality they evoke, becoming generalized images of the sitter's gender rather than focusing on their identity, an aspect that is emphasized by the exhibition's title, For Men Who Appreciate History, which the artist found in a men's perfume ad from the 1970s. Dated hairstyles inspired by images of hair models from the 1960s and 70s suspend the paintings in a moment in time yet are strangely disengaged from history.
Preferring the term “figurative” over “portraiture,” Becker's work questions the contemporary relevance of portraiture in the age of digital photography and the ubiquitous “selfie” picture. This is similarly evident in his paintings that remix figures from Renaissance and 19th century canonical works with contemporary celebrity and sports culture, challenging the temporal parameters that define any artistic movement.
Preferring the term “figurative” over “portraiture,” Becker's work questions the contemporary relevance of portraiture in the age of digital photography and the ubiquitous “selfie” picture. This is similarly evident in his paintings that remix figures from Renaissance and 19th century canonical works with contemporary celebrity and sports culture, challenging the temporal parameters that define any artistic movement.
News
Kevin Griffin, "Noah Becker: challenging traditional portraits as heroic figures," Vancouver Sun, May 21, 2014
http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2014/05/21/noah-becker-challenging-traditional-portraits-as-heroic-figures/ Grady Mitchell, "SEEN IN VANCOUVER #496 | Noah Becker’s Show At East Hastings’ Back Gallery Project," Scout Magazine, May 8, 2014 http://scoutmagazine.ca/2014/05/08/seen-in-vancouver-496-noah-beckers-show-at-east-hastings-back-gallery-project/ |