About the artwork
Noah Chavkin
Ain't No City Quite Like Mine, 2019
House paint and acrylic on lauan panels
Located in the Fourth Avenue Building outside suite 025
A stylized mural with a graphic design aesthetic, using simplified iconic forms to represent Portland's hills, street grids, river, bridges, and Mount Hood.
About the artist
Noah Chavkin is a PSU alumnus, artist and designer currently based in Portland. He was in his senior year in the BFA program when he created this mural.
From Noah's website: "My work is inspired entirely by my lived experiences. The goal for me is to translate my experiences out in the world into beautifully stylized compositions that are accessible to all. The style I work in is based on my relationship with folk art, cubism, minimalism, and modernism. I look at traditional Mexican, Meso-american, indigenous pacific-northwest, and Vietnamese folk art as well as the work of Keith Haring, Fernand Leger, Tarsila do Amaral, Pablo Picasso, and Edward Hopper in order to inform and build my unique artistic language. My work often times relies heavily on the use of symbolism and cubism, combined with bold colors and playful motifs meant to evoke emotions of happiness, curiosity, and wonder, mirroring my personal emotions about the world around me. For me, creating is about sharing my personal experiences with the world in an accessible and approachable way. I make art to make people happy, to fill people with a sense of wonder and amazement, and to showcase the beauty that lies all around us whether on the streets of Portland or in the jungles of Vietnam. I hope you enjoy!"
Banner image: Photo by Josh Gates.