Noah Di Bettschen is a 22-year-old full-time artist who currently living and working in Paris and Zurich
In Zurich, he began to portray drug addicts in his art. The main motive behind it was the death of his drug-addicted father. Noah made over 7 short documentary movies about the different drug addicts he painted
Later he moved to Los Angeles and painted and accompanied over dozens of homeless people. From December 2022 till February 2023 he was working on a one hour documentary about Los Angeles and its homelessness. the main focus behind this project was to give a unfiltered insight from the people who are affected by its homelessness and their mental issues which often leads to drug addiction, crime and violence. After documenting drug addiction in Switzerland, Noah wanted to portray a drug scene somewhere, where there's a completely different drug policy, so Los Angeles was the most interesting place for him. even he had a group exhibition for the first time in acknowledged museum in Swiss while he had the idea to go to Los Angeles, Noah followed his instincts and went spontaneously with his best friend to America. even if his best friend has nothing to do with art, and both didn't had a professional camera equipment, Noah didn't care about the limited circumstances and belief in his vision and gave all his heart to realize this project successful.
full documentary on YouTube: Los Angeles lost angels - noah di Bettschen ( https://youtu.be/_ojWpJYVYv8?si=QXxOlH4XavZ-SL3l )
after his stay in Los Angeles he went back to Zurich and made a solo exhibition, where he also showed his paintings and his documentary of Los Angeles, where the Swiss press "Tagesanzeiger" wrote an article about him and put him on the cover of the newspaper
( https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/dieser-junge-zuercher-will-die-kunstwelt-erobern)
2 weeks right after he had his first exhibition in Paris and met his current wife Anais decan, because of that he decided to move to Paris and lives there partly till today. since that he had five exhibitions in Paris and did live paintings in the hotel renaissance arc de triomphe.
at the same he went to New York and worked in the big studio of American artist Gregory de la habe. in New York he did not shy away from the street and painted again people he met randomly. but this time he painted what he just noticed. Whether street artist or a multimillionaire in his villa.
Because it is now important for Noah to show all his creative potential and also to show that his interest in humans goes far beyond any group-specifi. Thus, his work now includes painting that address natural disasters, psychoanalytic portraits or even political statements that show the consumer behavior of our time.
Because for the artist everything goes into each other, Each difficulty has something in common with the other: ignorance. Be it ignorance of oneself or others, ignorance is in Noah's opinion, is the fear of confronting the complexity of one's own emotions. it's the confusion of the paradox about life and living that inspires Noah to create art . His main focus is on large-format and figurative paintings, supplemented with a poetic quote. because in addition to painting, Noah loves to write a lot. exactly he started with writing to understand hisself better. before he did art, Noah struggled with abusing hard alcohol and depression. he was unemployed but since he was 16 years old already on his own, so it was hard for him to get money and survive. but as a passionated skateboarder, he found his own way to make a bit money with teaching skate lessons; skating contests or sponsorships. he suffered deeply from his childhood trauma and the loss of his heroin addicted father, he felt lonely and misunderstood by his past environment so he started to write down his emotions to feel at least understood by himself and through this he created pictures he couldn't find the words for to describe, so he took a brush and started to paint, put always with a self written quote on it. for Noah is sure, poetry and paintings will always be connected. In the last two years, he published his own book, which was designed and produced by himself. currently he's working with book publisher from Vienna (vfmk) on his first English book.
The artist exhibited in Paris and London in April, in May at the Venice Biennale and in June he had a big solo exhibition in Zurich, shortly followed by a group exhibition curated by a private collector in Murten and another group exhibition in coincoin Zurich, where he already had a solo show one year before. in october 2024 he exhibited in Matera, italy followed by the upcoming exhibition in baden, switzerland at kunstwerkstube, where Noah will exhibit from the 7th november till 17.11.24 and then also exhibit at the art lab, in the gallery benjamin eck in munich. the gallery which noah cooperates with.
Noah’s art is inspired by his sensitivity in a overstimulated environment.
the artist says that our society is currently confused between a mania of self improvement and the deep urge for the unregulated fulfillment of lust for. the constant search for peace of mind and pure action in life, makes a thin line between self love and selfishness. And that's exactly what is so interesting for Noah to capture in art.
"My paintings are difficult to categorize. They are painted on a ripped canvas. The colors are expressive, but I also don't shy away from dark colors, it just depends on my current emotional state. Portraits realistically painted, followed by surrealist creations that are almost terrifying and I love optical illusions. Animals, nature, objects, creepy creatures - almost demons, portraits of others but also tons of different self-portraits. It is an interplay between the fascinating world and the crazy fantasy of a young artist. and my poetry is also important on my canvas. You can find, many fonts again and again on the paintings, they are almost like different voices that scream at the viewer, they can be voices from my head, but you can also see your own voices of your head in it, and that's where the beauty of art begins and the connections of a healing dialogue starts.”
Noah Di Bettschen