Noah Becker and Kendell Geers on restoring the power of artists to the centre of the art system
Noah Becker has built a career at the intersection of art, music and publishing. In 2005, he founded Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, now one of the longest-running independent platforms for contemporary art criticism.
Twenty years later, The Best in the Art World, his new anthology with Michael Maizels, brings together key voices from the magazine and offers a sharp snapshot of how contemporary art and its discourse have evolved.
Beyond publishing, Becker is also an active painter and a distinctive voice on the art world itself, using social media to question how value, visibility and influence are shaped today.
This conversation will explore how the art ecosystem is changing, and what it means for artists navigating a system increasingly driven by markets, institutions and media.
Learn more about the full Art Day programme: https://www.themerode.com/en/art-day2026
speaker
Noah Becker is a contemporary American artist, musician, and cultural commentator whose work moves fluidly across visual art, music and publishing. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, an influential online platform that has, for over a decade, documented and shaped conversations around emerging and established artists.
Alongside his publishing work, Becker has developed a multidisciplinary artistic practice spanning painting, music and writing. His visual work draws on abstract expressionism while incorporating elements of street art and contemporary visual culture, often engaging with questions of identity, media saturation and the evolving role of the artist today.
moderator
Kendell Geers is a contemporary artist. His work confronts universal themes of love, resilience, and hope, driven by his belief that the act of making art is what defines humanity itself. In times of social crisis and political extremism, his work challenges audiences to consider how art can build bridges and restore a sense of shared humanity.
Extending this vision, Geers hosts the Art Matters tables at TheMerode. Bringing together performance, philosophical inquiry, and community engagement, Art Matters embodies his conviction that art is not a passive pursuit but an active force for change. At its heart lies the idea that art changes the world, one perception at a time.
