Talking Digital Reality with Lehman Noviello

By Liam Dwyer, ‘22

*Search Party*, 2020, by Lehman Noviello

The first time I spotted Lehman Noviello’s artwork, it was adorning the walls of Focus Group, a thrift store in SE Portland. The colors were tasteful, yet explosively vibrant.

Most of the works were portraits. What really caught my eye was the visual style, a dry brush technique with a unique texture.

Since my first encounter with Noviello’s artwork, I’ve had a difficult time defining his counterparts. One element of my difficulty to define his work may be his approach to art making.

Often artists who think about digital reality use technology to achieve their means. Naim Jun Paik, Shigeko Kubota, and Gretchen Blender were all artists who used TV screens to represent the modernization of culture.

For Paik, this was 'electronic super highways' - the development of ultra fast connection across the globe through technology. For Kubota, it was the 'liquid reality' of television, how it warped and changed what was seen or real.

Blender spliced mass media like advertisements and news broadcasts to create a critique of capitalism that was an assault on the senses. Using tech to pose questions about tech is a carried theme through all of these artists’ works.

Noviello stands out by critiquing the same issues with traditional materials. In our interview, I had the chance to chat with him about the ideas and memories which support his work.

What has your progression in artistic style looked like? How do you see it changing in the future?

First I did portraits of huskies when I was 8 or 9. That was my first thing, on this Crayola easel. I’d think about it hanging in galleries and started to think about it seriously.

My mom lived in New Jersey and my dad lived in Pennsylvania, so I’d go through this warp hole every weekend, between a really rural area and one of the most densely populated places in the world.

In 2016 I started using this dry marker style and I thought that it looked different than stuff I was seeing in the art world so I wanted to see how far I could go with it. Right now, it’s morphing a lot, becoming more available for gallery shows.

I see it becoming more minimal, but also more detailed. I’m fine tuning what I’m putting in to each canvas to make it stand out.

A large body of your work is, to my eye at least, portraiture. Are these of people you know? Are they imaginary characters?

We’re living in two different realms at the same time, the digital and the analog. The portraits are people living in that digital realm and what they do for work, and how the meaning of their lives change.

I have a hard time explaining this- it’s what we would do if we didn’t have electricity in a digital realm. They’re characters living in the digital realm as if it was our analog realm.

Do the aspects/differences of the characters you illustrate come more from day to day observation or imagined things?

Sometimes it’s from the way people interact with the world that we live in now, tools and words that they use, et cetera. Some times it’s from seeing or hearing something and thinking it was something else.

A lot of the time it’s hearing a phrase in a show or song or from someone I pass by on the street and then I elaborate on that. Some times I’m about to fall asleep on the couch and some type of movie from some other place that I have no control over starts playing in my head.

One thing I enjoy about your art is the way you name pieces. Often they’re very matter-of-factly described, but simultaneously indicate fantastical elements in the narrative of your work. A couple examples I love are “Internal spirit ship memory collection unit altar with anchored double grape antennae,” or “Faceless tower with carrousel table and enigmatic fog, twin distillation method into two clear heart chamber containers with growing star wheels for movement.” Does anything inspire this?

I name them with the list because it gives you an inventory of what’s on the canvas, like a blueprint. It’s inspired by what I see right now. Everyday things go more digital, so I’m trying to hold on to the analog.

I grew up without cell phones. We had stuff like answering machines… no one has that anymore, it’s kitschy now. I still have this memory of that stuff.

You’ve said that the digital age we live in “makes it difficult to hold onto any concrete ideals or beliefs.” How would disconnecting yourself from the rapid nature of mass culture change your art?

It would be hard to disconnect myself. I need to be on the pulse of what’s happening as it’s taking place.

It’s inspiring to see what humans are doing, but at the same time I think it’s too much, and we need to go back to a point of simplicity for the sake of everyone’s mental health. I think the art would change completely, and it wouldn’t even have a lot of the same concepts, because it’s inspired by [the digital age].

You did a collaboration with The Killing Floor Skating on some skateboard decks. What was it like to work with them and present your art in a new way?

One of Noviello’s skateboard decks made in collaboration with The Killing Floor Skateboards.

Working with The Killing Floor was awesome. I think my paintings really fit on that medium.

Growing up, I would get skate magazines all the time, so seeing my art in those magazines- like CCS- was mind blowing. I think they took to the skateboards really well, it’s like a trophy of mine.

Finally, what’s coming up for you? Is there anything you’re excited to share soon?

I have a solo show at Collapse Gallery in Wenatchee Washington on February 4th. That’s gonna be huge, and I’m working on NFTs now.

I’m also working on a proposal for Facebook Open Arts. I had a studio visit with the lady that finds people to do murals for the Facebook buildings in Seattle, and she really liked my stuff, so I’m doing a mockup to present to their board.

If it goes through, then I’ll be doing a mural at Facebook Studios in Seattle. Hopefully that’ll happen before the spring.

More of Noviello’s work can be viewed on his Instagram and website.