DFN Gallery is proud to exhibit “In Plain View,” a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Dan Witz.  In his luminous nightscapes, Witz transforms banal subjects – table lamps, New York City bodegas and bus shelters, and people looking at their cell phones into quietly iconic symbols of our time.  These paintings transcend mere depiction, emitting light that reveals concurrent feelings of intimacy and isolation.

Witz creates his pieces using a distinctive process; first by printing a digital photograph onto a canvas as an underpainting and then adding layers of oil paint and transparent glazes, using the techniques of the 17th century European masters.  In his newest painting series, Witz’s subjects are transfixed by their own mobile phone auras as seen in Laura (cell phone).  An electronic glow replaces Georges de Latour’s candlelight and supplants 18^th century piety with a subtle 21^st   century anxiety.  When asked about these images, Witz explains:

 “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.  He has been a part of numerous solo and group exhibitions at DFN Gallery, including "New Night Paintings,” and “Innocence Found.”  Witz has also had several international exhibitions and has been a grant recipient from the National Endowment for the Arts and from the New York Foundation for the Arts.  In addition, Witz’s work has been featured in publications such as Time, New York and Juxtapoz.  In January, 2009, a monograph titled, “Dan Witz. In Plain View. 30 Years of Artworks, Illegal and Otherwise,” will be published by Gingko Press. Dan Witz also plays an active role as a street artist, balancing his time between making paintings in his studio in Brooklyn.  This is Dan Witz’s fourth solo exhibition at DFN Gallery.