Dan Witz “In Plain View”
DFN Gallery
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In his luminescent nightscapes, Witz transforms banal subjects – table lamps, New York City bodegas and bus shelters, people on their cell phones into quietly iconic symbols of our time. These paintings aren’t mere depictions; they are meant to radiate light - light that reveals concurrent feelings of intimacy and isolation.
Witz creates his pieces using a distinctive process; printing a digital photograph onto a canvas as an underpainting then adding layers of oil paint and transparent glazes, using the largely forgotten technology of the 17th century European masters. In his newest painting series Witz’s subjects are transfixed in their own mobile phone auras. A celluar glow replaces Georges de Latour’s candlelight and supplants 18th century piety with a subtle 21st century anxiety.
"They’re friends of mine. When I was doing the painting I imagined I was the one calling (or texting). I love the idea of the observer's presence actually bringing illumination--an apt role for the painter (me) and the person looking at the painting (you)."
Witz was born in Chicago in 1957. He studied at Rhode Island School of design and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture before graduating from Cooper Union School of Art in New York in 1980.
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Schedule
from October 02, 2008 to October 25, 2008