BIO

Steven Pleva was born in Detroit and raised in the suburbs.  He started painting in high school art classes and for fun during college where he earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Detroit Mercy.  In the studio Steven started exploring with mixing different types of paint, painting on different materials, and working with texture.  From there on his paintings became more about the painting technique and what the finished result of that process was.

As a self-taught artist his painting provides an outlet for his creativity by exploring new painting techniques, materials, and ideas.  The grid from architecture school became a tool for composing smaller individual painted pieces into a larger image.  While working on many mid-century modern homes he recycled wood cut offs from the construction sites and started painting on them where he developed his flat painting technique.  Both the grid and recycled wood blocks resulted in the painting "Tropical Wave" which exhibited at Artprize 2012 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  It also helped produce the idea for the "Tropical Fish" sculpture exhibited at a charity fundraising event in 2012.     

Steven is currently producing more three-dimensional wood paintings and studying the effects of scale through making larger paintings from the smaller ones. He continues his mission to create, show, and sell paintings that bring inspiration and enjoyment to viewer's daily lives and surroundings.