Bio: Noah Breuer is an American artist from Berkeley, California. He earned his BFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design, his MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University and a Graduate Research Certificate in traditional Japanese woodblock printmaking and papermaking from Kyoto Seika University.

His creative work examines themes of family, identity, labor and diaspora. Exploring the fusion of traditional printmaking techniques and twentieth-first-century tools and technology is fundamental to his art practice. His recent research investigates early twentieth-century domestic textile design in Europe and the legacy of Jewish-owned textile printing companies in Czech Bohemia and their role within that economic and cultural landscape.

Breuer has completed recent solo exhibitions at the Moravian Beauty Foundation, (Břeclav, Czech Republic) the National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library (Cedar Rapids, IA), Atelier Circulaire (Montreal, QC), Urban Glass (Brooklyn, NY). 

Artist Statement: This printed and stitched composition references a textile design created by my Jewish ancestors in pre-war Czech Bohemia that I unearthed while visiting the archives of the Czech Textile Museum in Česká Skalice during a 2016 research trip. My family’s company, “Carl Breuer & Sons” (CB&S), printed all manner of domestic textiles including table linens, bedsheets and window curtains. For several years, I have been working from these same archival source materials and creating a kind of reclamation project in which I reimagine, reinterpret and republish these visual motifs as works of fine art. The central image within this artwork references a CB&S bicycle seat cover design, circa 1910, from a branded line of printed fabrics called “Tatra.” This body of artwork evinces my formal interest in manipulating decorative motifs, my dedication to the craft of printmaking, and my sustained inquiry into the rhetorics of communication through print media.

Website: www.noahbreuer.com

Social Media: @noahbreuer