Noah Emhurt: July 2025
Noah Emhurt is a painter whose work merges an unforgotten, youthful energy with years of experience, blending abstract and figurative elements into a style that is both raw and somewhat unapologetic. Raised in a small city, his earliest canvases were bedroom walls (where he constantly drew) and the city streets (where he discreetly spray-painted), shaped by a steady diet of comic books, graffiti, and skateboard art.
After earning his BFA, he moved to major cities, including Tokyo, where he pulls from the culture and fast pace of these environments. Currently, he resides in Pittsburgh where he moved to in order to push his work into a new direction and create a novel body of work. Mission accomplished. His paintings, executed on large canvases in oil and acrylic, often combine his childhood influences, his education in the arts, and the fast pace of urban lifestyle in order to create a unique style all his own.
His work has been showcased in a range of gallery exhibitions across the U.S. and featured in multiple film and television productions.
Lately, I’ve found myself drawn back to the imagery and interests that shaped me early on as an artist- comic books, skateboard graphics, vintage toys, and old magazine clippings. No matter how much I’ve tried to distance myself from these influences they have always seemed to resurface. Instead of ignoring them, I’ve decided to embrace them. I use found images and objects that would have influenced me and rework them through abstraction, transformation, and personalization. The goal isn’t nostalgia; it’s reclamation.
These images often carry a slight underlying theme of aggression. If you think about it, we areall exposed to some form of low-level hostility whether it be through politics, the media, orentertainment. Although this theme is prevalent in my work, I don’t glorify it. Rather, it isportrayed in an almost beautiful, abstract manner that makes it unrecognizable but still present.My work reflects this atmosphere but it is filtered through the lens of my childhood memory withan adult interpretation. The image is not handed over easily. It requires the viewer to examine the piece and hopefully come up with his/her own narrative.
The style I’ve developed allows me to explore harsh or complicated subject matter in a waythat’s unique, personal, and a bit playful. It’s experimental, bold, and exactly where I need to be.
Current Exhibition:
Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival’s Annual Juried Visual Art Exhibition
through August 3, 2025
Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
SPACE Gallery
812 Liberty Ave.
Pittsburgh PA 15222
