Cézanne had his bowls of fruit, Van Gogh had his starry skies, and Noah Verrier now has his All-American snacks. With a stylistic inspiration that blends Americana culture with the grace of realism still lifes, Verrier has created a whole new niche of contemporary art.
His oil paintings frequently depict popular comfort foods, from Panda Express takeout to Uncrustable sandwiches, the latter of which featured in a painting of Verrier’s which recently sold on eBay for over $5,000. A painting of his released just days ago, depicting a bag of Cheetos accompanied with a glass of red wine, is now for sale at auction for around $2,500.
At the start of Noah Verrier’s career as an artist, his goal was to sell a painting a day for $99. When asked how he avoids artistic burnout with such frequency, Verrier told me, “I take it one day at a time. I rarely look too far ahead. And I focus on the here and now.”
Verrier finds inspiration nearly everywhere. Living in Tallahassee, Florida, he first took up oil painting while earning his bachelor of fine arts degree at Florida State University. He gained a special interest in classic French painters Édouard Manet and Jean Siméon Chardin, whose still-life works feature flowers, cheese, and baskets of lemons. Yet Verrier surprised his professors when he first utilized these techniques to depict a self-inspired depiction of Grey Goose Vodka and Goldfish crackers.
“Chardin has taught me about the subtleties of light, and Manet has shown me the importance of every brushstroke,” Verrier said. His signature present-day style uses the “alla prima”technique of layering wet paint directly on the canvas, much like the Impressionists. However, unlike his inspirations, Verrier employs the technique to render American food culture, entranced by the vibrantly artificial colors of Taco Bell’s Baja Blasts and the viscous goo of artificial jams.
Yet Verrier still maintains the emotion of his 19th-century realist counterparts and is sure to fully immerse himself in whatever he has chosen to paint. “I always try to eat something before I paint it, just to have that connection with it,” Verrier told a reporter at The New York Times. Through his work, Verrier hopes to challenge the widely accepted notion that all highly regarded art has to depict subjects that are so unfamiliar and distant for most viewers.
In an interview with Vogue Spain, Verrier mentions taking inspiration from things that he finds both familiar and nostalgic, drawing from the comfort of his childhood. He also believes this sense of comfort to transfer over to his fans, noting, “I think it’s the relatability of the things I am portraying that also helps stir emotion in the viewer.”
But unlike his inspirations, who gained recognition from being shown in some of France’s most prestigious art exhibitions, the key to Verrier’s success is accessibility, as he has gained fame in recent years by sharing his work widely on social media. His painting of Uncrustables, for example, has racked up over 13 million views on X, with average work prices ranging from $25 to $309.
Verrier’s initial feelings toward utilizing social media as a tool to spread his art may be surprising. When Verrier first started painting with his current style, his main job was teaching as an adjunct professor at several different schools. “I hated it at first and sought to show my work only in person,” Verrier said. Yet as he began to share some of his work on Facebook after encouragement from his friends and family, all of whom admired his new take on classical oil painting, he was shocked by the results. The less traditional subject matters were even more popular, garnering higher ‘like counts’ than paintings of flowers and traditional still-life subjects.
As he began to get used to sharing his work on Facebook and Instagram, Verrier received a message alerting him of some of his work going viral on Reddit, a site he had never heard of until then. Realizing that this newfound media platform might be the real source to his success, Verrier began to post and sell his pieces on Reddit, which proved to have even more appreciators of art. Quickly, Verrier’s work began to go viral, one of the first being his famous PB&J with a jar of milk.
“I realized I had to learn to grow with technology or drown in the past. It has been key to reach a broader audience without need for external validation,” said Verrier. Once he learned how to fully take advantage of the opportunities that social media provided for his career, Verrier’s road to success was swift. He is now a dedicated advocate for the utilization of social media to connect people with arts, stating, “It’s key. It’s the voice of the people, unhindered by a middle man.”
After his first viral piece, Verrier was quickly offered his first brand deal by NYX, which was quickly followed by Popeyes. Later, Taco Bell reached out to Verrier for a project, which contained a piece that was later featured in the 2024 Mean Girls movie.
“It’s only in the movie for a split second, but the fact that it was in Regina George’s house, like are you kidding me? It’s been really awesome to work with brands, but the movie situation was crazy because it’s just so far beyond what I would have expected,” Verrier told a reporter at People Magazine. “I was just trying to make a living off my work. It’s all been amazing. It’s all been a huge surprise and it’s all a big deal to me.”
Following his exponential rise in success, Verrier quit his job as a professor and began painting full time, making the bulk of his income from sales of prints and originals over brand deals. He has only experienced one instance of a brand asking for royalties from print revenue, which he opted not to sell. When working with brands, he said he prefers to give them the original artwork to keep or share as part of a giveaway — an added bonus, he said, of working with an artist versus a more typical creator.
Despite the various commissioned pieces that Verrier has created from a multitude of brands, he insists that these partnerships don’t dictate his artistic direction. “You don’t want to go down a road where you put yourself in a trap and now you’re creating things you don’t like,” said Verrier.
To Verrier, what makes his art so appealing is the emotional connection that it holds. In response to critics claiming that Verrier’s concentration of commissioned works are corporate and corrupt, he questions why there is an inherent issue with depicting subjects that held such a key role in so many early memories of his fellow Americans.
“It’s part of our childhood, it’s part of our memories, it’s part of nostalgia,” he told the The New York Times reporter. “Why would you not want to paint that?”
There is a juxtaposition that lies in the unprecedented works of Verrier in the realist art world in what he is painting and the comfort that viewers find in his work. Verrier prefers to depict subjects that viewers will find familiar, and what is more familiar than the foods that add color to our billboards and fill the streetscapes with hundreds of locations across the country? “It’s the idea of comfort food. You maybe don’t or shouldn’t eat it every day, but how powerful is it to hang on your wall?” said Verrier. “It is all of the pleasure and none of the pain.”
Despite the great lengths of his success in the art world, Verrier makes an active effort to not place himself on a higher pedestal than his viewers. His main goal of what he wishes viewers to take away from his work is simple. “I try to create beautiful pieces of art that people will love to look at, and hopefully get a little emotional about, make them happy, feel good inside, and remember,” said Verrier.
Though most well known for his junk food depictions, Verrier finds inspiration in whatever catches interest in his daily life, whether that is with depictions of other types of food, perhaps the meal that his wife prepared for dinner that night, or the flowers that he grabbed at a local market. “I choose the things that make us who we are today. I often also gravitate towards interesting colors or textures an item might present,” he said.
Verrier maintains his focus on the “here and now.” When asked I asked him what we can expect to see in his future career, he said, “There are many many things I’d love to paint that I have not yet. I have a dream list in my imagination, and I can’t wait to get to them!”
To look at some more of Noah Verrier’s work, visit his Instagram or X accounts, or visit Noah Verrier’s website to look at some of his available pieces.
“It’s the idea of comfort food. You maybe don’t or shouldn’t eat it every day, but how powerful is it to hang on your wall?” said Verrier. “It is all of the pleasure and none of the pain,” said Noah Verrier.