Noah Verrier—artist, foodie, or businessman?

Noah Verrier started his artistic career before he hit double digits. By seven years old he already knew he loved to draw and to explore with color, so from there he began to paint.

"Every year my passion grew more for art," he recalls fondly.

Verrier went to school for art, receiving both his MFA and BFA in oil painting before beginning work as an art professor. Despite possessing an expansive knowledge of 19th-century and contemporary artists, he maintains a distance between teaching and making his own art. He has noticed that they are "two separate things" in his journey.

The art market has not interfered with his creativity either, even in his professional practice. "Creating my best work is always the priority," Verrier states proudly. "Whatever avenue is available to show that work is secondary."

Verrier and his work have gone extremely viral online. The artist has amassed nearly 200K followers on Instagram, while media outlets such as The New York Times and Vogue España have covered stories on his success. A large portion of this success stems from the unique appeal of his art to an expansive audience—fellow artists, painting students, and even those simply scrolling through TikTok before bed all form Verrier’s clientele. Social media, despite not being the root of Verrier’s passion for art, has allowed his work to reach any person with access to the internet. And with his classic stylistic approach to youthful, consumerist, humorous subjects, he intertwines old-school art appreciation with new-age virality. 

Verrier creates still life paintings that are both nostalgic and mesmerizing. From a Dunkin' iced coffee and donut staged beside a floral bouquet to an Uncrustables sandwich oozing jelly onto a tablecloth, his subjects engage with not only artistic audiences but anyone who has visited a 7/11 in modern-day America. An Instagram-goer can scroll past a post by Verrier and like it because they love iced coffee, because the contrast of aesthetic and subject makes them laugh, or because they admire the intricate details achieved with a paintbrush.

On one hand, Verrier’s still lives peer nostalgically into the comforts of an American childhood. After school snacks, summertime treats, and even bottled-up children’s toys have all been featured on Verrier’s tabletop. He has painted everything from marbles to chalk, Bell jars of milk to Chinese take-out containers, gummy bears to that one specific brand of maple syrup that everyone saw in their grandparents’ fridge. He has even illustrated a close-up view into a bag of dusty orange Cheetos.

On the other hand, perhaps all of these beautiful encapsulations of American staples actually compose a larger commentary on the nature of modern consumerism. Does beauty now lie in junk food, plastic waste, and over-processed meals? Is the picture of America, the life represented by Verrier’s brush, one full of advertisement and capitalism? 

Despite claiming his focus and love to be on the fulfillment of his artistic vision, Verrier regularly auctions off his original oil paintings through Ebay. As of March 10th at 3:00pm, the top bid for his original “PBJ & Jar of Milk” sits at a whopping $5,600. Smaller prints and canvases of this work are available for between $50 and $350 on the same auction page, run by Verrier himself. “For me every painting is like a prayer to God,” he says at the bottom of his Ebay bio. “I can be still, look closely, and interpret the colors, shapes, and emotion before me.” Here, he does not claim to place artistic practice above economic value, but rather silently intertwines the two.

His works feature designer clothing items, TikTok famous Stanley cups, and forever-famous fast food orders. When the subjects of these still lives are not derived from pop culture, they are drink glasses, shiny coffee pots, blooming bouquets, and bowls of fruit—just like the traditional works of Chardin or Manet. Verrier says he selects his subjects sometimes based on how they look, but also how each one feels emotionally. On his website, he writes that his "aim is to accurately yet personally discern color and light," a theme which intertwines the nostalgia of his take-out cups and half-eaten tacos with the classic beauty of his brushstrokes. The items he paints are random, but what they do have in common is an ability to reflect delicate sections of light and shadow through oil paint. Perhaps it is this classical portrayal of these modern subjects which transforms them into instances of childhood reminiscence.

Citing still life greats like Chardin and Manet as inspiration, Verrier mimics their skillful approaches to light and shadow in his own work. This comes across in his utilization of florals, reflective surfaces, simple backdrops, and the softness of his palettes. Just as Chardin traced the intricacies of light passing through a glass of water, Verrier has done the same gorgeous work in the shiny plastic of a Baja Blast cup and its squeaky straw. He also claims Wayne Thiebaud and Andy Warhol as influences on his work, and their quirky approaches to food and composition shine through his still life subjects.

Verrier's paintings are definitively realistic as still life works, yet the odd mixture of artistry with the messiness of humanity and consumerism form an underlying feeling of surrealism. Whereas many typical still lives feature the classic beauties of nature and humanity (fruit, curated platters, decadent goods, jewelry acquired through international trade, and other extravagant displays of wealth), Verrier’s nod to the echelon of capitalism most often scoffed at—fast food and cheap toys. The inherent contrast between style and subject feels unbalanced even in its beauty, evoking a curiosity from its audience which questions the reality of modern beauty. Beauty can exist in the most mundane objects and obscure moments, especially when captured carefully and passionately. Perhaps the beauty is despite, within, the wastefulness and corruption of capitalism and consumerism, not because of it.

"Parts of me I hope shine through are brushstrokes left in gesture," Verrier said when asked about how his work expresses himself. But it is also the choices he makes in subject and composition, the care he places into the construction of his paintings, which reveal his unique and personal perspective of the world. Even the most mundane objects can evoke feelings of nostalgia, and even items which embody the messiness of modern capitalism may provoke reminiscence for childhood. "I try to always be my authentic self, no matter where I show up." Even if this self reveals itself in a jar of jellybeans.

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(Cover Image: Noah Verrier’s PBJ & Jar of Milk via Noah Verrier)