Van der Ploeg works with an organized and recognizable graphic visual language that he has carefully constructed throughout his career. Since 1997 he has been working with a basic form that appears in many of his paintings and functions as an anchor amidst the endless possibilities of form variations. This shape, which he metaphorically called "grip", is a rectangle with rounded corners and has only been given some slight variation in his recent paintings. Another recurring element is the use of patterns created by repetition of form. It is within these types of methodologies and limitations that Van der Ploeg excels; in limitation the master reveals himself.

Van der Ploeg paintings are closest to his sketching process which is the starting point of all his artworks. A careful planning and building process that takes place before painting begins. Creating a composition is like sliding with flat building blocks of graphic shapes and experimenting with an infinite palette of shades and colors. This is his private playground in which van der Ploeg finds the ultimate freedom and pleasure to constantly create surprising and very well-balanced combinations.

The blue and white painting, Painting No. 1826, Untitled, 2018, 750 x 436 cm., Acrylic paint on panel, was exhibited from 2018 - 2019 on the outer facade of the Dordrechts Museum as part of the exhibition The Most Contemporary Paintings Exhibition. After the exhibition, the work was donated to the art collection of Maastricht University and has been given its current use on the facade at the end of the FASoS building.

As a result, the art committee of Maastricht University has commissioned Jan van der Ploeg to design a second, monumental art application on the long side of the façade of the FASoS building. The orange-white diagonal line pattern reacts to and communicates with the horizontal character of the architecture and also with the blue-white composition of Painting No.1826. The artist's aim is that this dynamic art application on the façade of the FASoS building will contribute to an optimistic and positive use of a new architectural environment in public space.

Jan van der Ploeg (1959, Amsterdam) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam and Croydon College of Art in London and completed a residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam.

In 1990 Jan van der Ploeg received the Royal Prize for Modern Painting.

His work has been exhibited extensively in both solo and group exhibitions in Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Selected solo exhibitions include: Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; MOMA PS1, New York; Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel; Kunstverein Heilbronn, Heilbronn; Von Bartha, Basel; Minus Space, New York; Sikkema Jenkins, New York; Wellington City Art Gallery, Wellington; Taubert Contemporary, Berlin; Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago; Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney; Hamish McKay Gallery, Welington; Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

In 1999 Jan van der Ploeg founded the artist-run gallery PSprojectspace in Amsterdam.Jan van der Ploeg