Noah Alveberg’s ongoing preoccupation with the bodily landscape, identity, ecology and history lends his works their multi-layered subject matter, fuelled by a variety of historical, mythological and literary sources. These include references to Greek and Hindu mythology, alchemy, kabbalah and tantric symbolism.
Noah’s practice has developed through the accumulation, mingling and reworking of themes, motifs and constellations which recur across diverse media. The language of material plays an essential role in his works, ellipsoids of sap or metallic spheres radiate out beyond the surface of the work—transforming matter into energy.
Highly symbolic connections emerge from sap, earth, metals and the inclusion of found objects such as river stones, whale vertebraes, tools and model ships. Organic materials like sap are associated with circulation in the life cycle of the tree, between heaven and earth–the proverbial tree of life and knowledge incarnates a state of wholeness, alienation and reconciliation. Many of his chosen materials and themes contain alchemical references, such as the transmutation of metals into gold that becomes a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment—for the alchemists, metals were alive.
He creates symbolic spaces inside the landscapes, inside the bodies, following a rigorous process of conception. Ritual plays a central role in the process of subtraction from, and excavation of the image. Creating riverbeds inside the work calls on nature to finish the work using the force of gravity, accommodating the volition of the material itself.
He considers himself a vehicle for ideas of universality and timelessness already present in nature. The mountains recalls the bond of the sky with the earth. Bodies mediate this bond, this permeability of opposites. Cinnabar evokes a dialectics of states, as it turns from stone to liquid quicksilver when subjected to extreme heat. This turn from dry to liquid, overcoming the ordeal by fire was for the alchemists a symbol of their work—matter becomes energy and they’re ultimately the same thing.
The drop recalls the bindu, the first seed that contains, in repose, all manifestation—dripping from heaven down onto the earth stone, it constitutes a vertical tension that aligns the planes of the world. Aligning the landscape with the axis of the human body universalizes this dyad—in the geological epoch we are now in: “the anthropocene”, Earth indeed behaves like a human being with agency, and we behave like a vulcano in terms of energetic expenditure. Channelling these principles, his works invite a contemplative, even meditative, engagement from the viewer.

CV

DOB:31/05/1990

Education
BA fine art, Central Saint Martins, London 2009-2012
Studied drawing under Guro Giske: 2004-2006

Solo exhibitions
Gjengangere: Psyche ist ausgedehnt, weiss nichts davon. Galleri A-minor, Oslo 2015
Sol. Galleri-A, Oslo 2012
DESCENT. Galleri-A, Oslo 2010

Group exhibitions
Juleutstilling vinter. Fineart, Oslo 2022
Syndere i sommersol - kollektiv sommerutstilling. Fineart, Oslo 2018
A laget UTVALG sommer. Galleri-A, Oslo 2018
A laget UTVALG jul. Galleri-A, Oslo 2017
A laget UTVALG julen. Galleri-A, Oslo 2012
Finearts juleutstilling. Fineart, Oslo 2012
A laget UTVALG julen. Galleri-A, Oslo 2011
Finearts juleutstilling. Fineart, Oslo 2011
A laget UTVALG sommer. Galleri-A, Oslo 2011
A laget UTVALG vinter. Galleri-A, Oslo 2010
A laget UTVALG sommer. Galleri-A, Oslo 2010
A laget UTVALG. Galleri-A, Oslo 2009
Galleri Nordstrand. Oslo 2008

Selected collections
Swedbank FIRST securities 2010
NHO Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise 2009
Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services 2009
Isurvey offshore surveyors 2008

Selected List of Presentations

"The anatomy of the subtle body, a comparative exploration of Reich’s seven segments and the seven chakras." International Summer University, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMET), 19.th of August 2023