Derek Pentz AKA Zenobia Darling

About the Artist

Derek Pentz, AKA the Drag Rockstar Zenobia Darling, is a famed performing artist and painter known for blurring the lines between visual and performing art. Derek is a graduate of Towson University's theater program, where he studied reality television's theatrical and societal relevance, writing his undergraduate theater thesis on two of Bravo's reality tv theater masterpieces, Vanderpump Rules and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, titled "Would Oscar Wilde be a Nineteenth-Century PumpHead? The Wilde Aspirational Comedy of Vanderpump Rules."    All this theatrical study of pop culture, plus flourishing as a stand-up comic and Lady Gaga drag impersonator, led to the development of his Kennedy Center Collegiate Theater Festival-winning drag persona, Zenobia Darling. Derek has been featured as both Zenobia and Derek on various internationally available podcasts involving topics of drag performing art, mental health awareness, the paranormal, and Bravo TV's brand of Aspirational Living reality tv content. Derek wanted to apply all this theater notoriety to his visual art, resulting in creating his pop-culture art label and media company, Zenobia Darling Creative, in 2021.. Derek maintains studio space at Gallery 220 with The Havre de Grace Arts Collective in Havre de Grace, MD.    Derek as Zenobia Darling is the host of #RockStarLife: Coffee Break, available everywhere podcasts are downloaded.   Derek's painting style concentrates on gritty Neo-Expressionism and rebellious Abstract Expressionism with vivid neon colors and sparkling glitter in his distinctive "Modern Cave Art" style. Derek explores themes of graffiti and urban decay, mental health with trauma, pop culture, the paranormal and mythology, and drag celebrity through the lens of a spooky, queer creative.    Derek calls his photography style "Punk Rock Editorial," photographing the eclectic oddities and goth nature of the world around him with the glossy perfection expected of an artistic aspirational living publication. Derek views photography as a way to artistically document the performance art happenings of everyday life, along with the pop culture theatrics of our society.    Feel free to reach out for a collaboration at Derek@ZenobiaDarlingCreative.com.