Noah Becker

Noah Becker
Born1970 (age 53–54)
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Citizenship(dual) American and Canadian[1]
Occupation(s)Artist, painter, art writer, publisher, musician
Musical career
GenresJazz
Instrumentsaxophone
Websitenoahbeckerart.com

Noah Becker (born 1970)[2] is an American and Canadian artist, writer, publisher of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, and jazz saxophonist who lives and works in New York City and Vancouver Island.[3][4][5][6] He has written for Art in America Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, VICE, Interview Magazine, The Guardian UK and the Huffington Post.[2][7]

Early life and education

Becker was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up on a 40-acre farm on Thetis Island, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada.[4][8] He moved with his family to Victoria, British Columbia, at age 15, after their house burned down.[4] He had little early formal education and did not attend high school.[5] He was a student at Victoria College of Art,[4] and completed a year studying saxophone at Humber College,[9] before moving to New York in 2004, where he befriended saxophonist Ornette Coleman in 2011. [10] Becker made a short film with Coleman available to watch on Youtube.

Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art

Becker is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, an online contemporary art magazine that was established in 2005. Becker has published over 700 art writers generating over 6500 articles on contemporary art in Whitehot Magazine. Notable art writers and critics who have written in the past or currently write for Whitehot Magazine include: Shana Nys Dambrot, Paul Laster, Donald Kuspit and Anthony Haden-Guest. [9][11] Becker has interviewed or collaborated with hundreds of prominent contemporary artists including: Frank Stella, Neo Rauch and Spencer Tunick.

Art

Becker lives and works in New York City and Vancouver Island.[12] His oil paintings have been exhibited in numerous museums, galleries, and major art fairs in Canada, the United States and Europe, including in New York City,[13] Los Angeles, Detroit,[14] London,[15] Vancouver,[16] Toronto,[17] Montreal,[17] Miami and Switzerland. He had a New York solo exhibition in November, 2013.[12] Becker has a 2024 solo exhibition opening in NYC at Not For Them. Becker also shows his work with Kelly McKenna Gallery in the NY area and Gallery Merrick in Victoria BC.

Becker made international headlines after co-organizing an art show of Anna Sorokin's drawings and working on it with her while she was still in jail. The show "Free Anna Delvey" took place on the lower east side of Manhattan.


Music

Becker's first album, Where We Are, from 2000 features guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.[10] Becker's recent 2024 quartet album Mode For Noah reached the top 10 most added on the Jazzweek 2024 US Jazz radio chart. Becker as a sideman has recorded with Canadian hip hop artist Moka Only. Rosenwinkel and Only also contributed music to the soundtrack of New York Is Now, Becker's 2010 documentary on the New York art scene. Becker performed with saxophonist David Murray at New York City's jazz club The Village Vanguard in 2018.[18]

Awards

In 2009, Becker was one of 15 artists nominated for the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) Painting Prize. This exhibition toured Becker's painting to Musée D'Art Contemporain De Montréal and the Power Plant in Toronto.[17]

NYArts magazine named him as one of their 30 Artists To Watch in 2012.[3][19]

Becker was awarded second prize in the College Arts 86’ competition judged by Canadian artist Alex Colville

Becker's work is in The Michael C. Williams Collection of the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery at the University of Victoria in Saanich, British Columbia,[20] and was added to the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, in May, 2014.[21]

References

  1. ^ Maidman, Daniel (2013-04-06). "Q0: Daniel Maidman and Noah Becker in conversation". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  2. ^ a b "Contributing Artists / Writers". Art Voices magazine. Archived from the original on 2015-02-16. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  3. ^ a b Lanthier, Nancy (2014-05-06). "Art This Week: Noah Becker, Martha Varcoe Sturdy and Kelly Lycan". The Vancouver Sun. Archived from the original on 2014-08-27. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  4. ^ a b c d Martinez, Jamie (2013-05-30). "Ten questions for Artist Noah Becker". Arte Fuse. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  5. ^ a b Tron, Gina (2013-04-09). "Noah Becker". Ladygun. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  6. ^ "Noah Becker". MoMA PS1. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  7. ^ "Noah Becker". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  8. ^ Griffin, Kevin (2014-05-21). "Noah Becker: challenging traditional portraits as heroic figures". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  9. ^ a b Gibbs, Rick (2010). "Player, Painter, Publisher: Noah Becker's Career Is Whitehot". Boulevard (May/June 2010): 60–63. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  10. ^ a b "Take Five With Noah Becker". All About Jazz. 2009-07-17. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  11. ^ "The best art websites". Time Out New York. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 2019-07-03.
  12. ^ a b Maliszewski, Lynn (2013). "Trying Not to Think Too Much: the Work of Noah Becker". NYArts. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  13. ^ Colucci, Emily (2013-03-08). "Scope New York Brings the Streets to the Fair". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  14. ^ "Oakland University Art Gallery: The Roving Eye". Exposition Chicago. Archived from the original on 2014-05-06. Retrieved 2013-07-28.
  15. ^ "Stranger: An exhibition of self-portraits and their aesthetic value opens at Flowers Gallery in London". ArtDaily. 2013-07-05. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  16. ^ "How Soon Is Now". Vancouver Art Gallery. 2009. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  17. ^ a b c "RBC announces semi-finalists in the eleventh annual RBC". Bloomberg News. 2009-06-22. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  18. ^ Zimmer, Lori (2014-04-23). "Video: Noah Becker's New York Is Now". Art Nerd New York. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  19. ^ "30 Artists To Watch in 2012: Part III". NYArts. 2012. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  20. ^ Tuele, Nicholas (2013-03-08). "About Exhibit". The Williams Legacy: Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest. University of Victoria. Retrieved 2014-08-15.
  21. ^ Mitchell, Grady (2014-05-08). "SEEN IN VANCOUVER #496 : Noah Becker's Show At East Hastings' Back Gallery Project". Scout magazine. Vancouver. Retrieved 2014-08-15.