Noah Landfield
Ephemeral Cities
Noah Landfield was born and raised in New York City in a Tribeca that was still full of commercial lofts and artists’ residences; fertile soil for a budding artist. The naturally gifted Landfield followed in the path of his father and grandfather, both accomplished painters, and began making art from a young age. His formal training led to an MFA, after which he immediately began exhibiting in galleries throughout the United States.
Landfield’s paintings are redolent of the tension between urban structures and the forces of nature, reflecting on their ability to coexist and allowing for a further mediation on time and energy. Line, shape and texture underscore the highly saturated color and imagery in Landfield’s work, inviting the viewer to enjoy the challenge to their perception. Vibrant colors draw our attention to a seemingly abstract composition, which in turn, reveals clouds and a city below.
The artist states that “Paintings can be magic, healing objects, and I am interested in this idea of how my paintings function in the world that way. We are all ephemeral beings in an ephemeral world. My paintings have a lot to do with these ideas of ephemerality: color, light, duration. I also depict images of cities and objects we might think to be permanent and solid but, in fact, are just as ephemeral as flesh and blood. In a way, I would like the work to speak to this totality of nature that we are all a part of.”
“Billowing, flowing, and crumbling, the recent paintings of Noah Landfield, in Ephemeral Cities, chart vectors of movement, force, and energy as they play out in both natural and human-made manifestations.”
– William Corwin, Brooklyn Rail, 2022
