Contemporary artist Derek Pletch was born in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The son of an aerospace engineer, he grew up in a mid-century modern home filled with art and books. At the age of 12 he attended The University of Virginia Enrichment Program for the Gifted, and later studied art history, economics, and French at Hampden-Sydney College and creative writing at Yale University.

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As a young adult Pletch travelled extensively, studying in Europe and expanding his artistic frame of reference. He was fascinated by the evolution of art and the emergence of new movements. “I’m attracted to the ever-changing newness of contemporary art, the intellectual conversations surrounding it, and, at a basic visceral level, that exciting moment of surprise when you see something unexpected,” says Pletch.

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His new collection of “This would be” artworks, which follows his initial painting selected to the NAT 19 Exhibition by a Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic, examines the power of subtext and the impact of what isn’t depicted, but only evoked. The paintings suggest that the inciting concept of an artwork——the muse, the subject matter, the inspiration——is, in itself, a significant artistic act.

 

“Sparked by that first painting in the series,” said Pletch, “I’ve gone deep into the hypothetical world of the future unreal conditional tense. It’s a place where I’ve explored memoir, wanderlust, glamour, humor, social commentary, romance, longing, sensuality, and identity.” ​