Derek Ihnat - A Study in Black and White

Derek Ihnat first thought he’d capture the world around him in shutter speeds and f-stops. But it didn’t take long for the photography major to trade in his camera for a paintbrush.

“Everybody is a photographer,” Ihnat says. Instead, he created his own niche inspired by photography but distinct enough to call an original style. Emphasizing the contrast between light and dark – without, what he feels, is the distraction of color - his subjects often have mysterious expressions or shadowed faces.

But that style didn’t come to him right away. After attending the Community College of Philadelphia, Ihnat, a Doylestown native, moved to California in 2004. There, he worked in various art galleries in San Francisco, where Ihnat was surrounded by a “very supportive” network of artists. “I watched their process,” he says, adding he got a feel for what “good art” was. “It gave me a standard to go by.”

After spending a few years in San Francisco cutting his artistic teeth, Ihnat moved back to Philadelphia and opened his own gallery, working long hours, showcasing the work of other artists. But in 2008 – perhaps succumbing to his own muse – he closed the gallery and returned to his hometown. These days, instead of exhibiting art, he creates it.

“I paint every day, all day,“ Ihnat says. “In California, I was painting, but it was casual. I wasn’t sure what my style was. I only started taking [painting] seriously in the last three years. I found my style.”

And while his return home has allowed Ihnat to develop that style, it also almost led him astray. After settling back in Doylestown, he was tempted to paint landscapes, because he thought that’s what the Bucks County market demanded. But after realizing “you can throw a rock in this town and hit a landscape painter,” he decided to stay true to his vision. Since then, he has only strengthened his technique and expanded what can be done with a simple black-and-white palette.

Ihnat’s distinctive approach combines his appreciation for iconic imagery with his longstanding interest in the visual language and presentation pioneered by the fashion industry. Each of his paintings “is generally inspired by classic fashion or movies,” Ihnat says, adding he will often use a photograph from a magazine as inspiration. He also gets guidance and ideas from his girlfriend, who is a fashion stylist. “She knows all of the trends,” he says.

Ihnat’s paintings have been showcased across the country from Philadelphia to New York and as far west as Los Angeles. Closer to home, his work can be seen at the Sand Castle Winery, located along the Delaware River in Erwinna. The gallery stumbled upon his work quite by accident, he explains, when, on a whim, he decided to display his work at the Doylestown Arts Festival in 2009. The curator of Sand Castle’s collection happened to come across Ihnat’s work and purchased four paintings on the spot. In an area saturated with landscape artists, “she was happy I was doing something figurative,” Ihnat says.

But like most artists, Ihnat likes to push his own creative boundaries. Recently, he embarked on his “Heavy Hitters” series, a project that will feature portraits of area bartenders, who have been working at popular spots like the Amber Inn and Muggs for years. “It’s something different for me, because I usually do women and fashion,” Ihnat explains. “It’s a different take on my style, but I wanted to do something that would appeal to people in Doylestown.” The “Heavy Hitters” project will be exhibiting at Estetiks throughout July.

Looking ahead, Ihnat is also preparing for a solo exhibition in October at Verlaine on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The show will feature about 30 mod-inspired watercolors. And while Ihnat may have found his milieu in recent years, he hasn’t ruled out experimenting with an expanded palette as his career progresses. “I might go to color in the future,” Ihnat says. But for now, he’s enjoying keeping it black and white.

See more of Derek’s work online at: artslant.com/ny/artists/show/125184-derek-ihnat