DAN WITZ
New Night Paintings

March 10 – April 3, 2010

DFN Gallery is proud to exhibit New Night Paintings, a solo exhibition of recent paintings by Dan Witz. A continuation of his luminous nightscapes theme, Witz transforms banal subjects – lamps in apartment buildings and liquor bottles displayed in upscale bars, into glowing domestic shrines. These paintings transcend mere depiction, emitting (a private/public) 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. The source photos for the Park Avenue Lobby Lamp series were all taken of building lobbies on the Upper East Side near DFN Gallery. Context here becomes subtext. As seen in Park Avenue Lobby Lamps with Poinsettia, Witz’s tableaus are transformed into shrines by their own self-contained auras. Stage sets posing as intimate domestic interiors allow us to suspend disbelief long enough to enter the world of the painting. The obvious artifice of these interiors and the alluring chiaroscuro play of opposites between light and dark call to mind not only the dualities of our everyday lives vs. packaged realities, but serve the artist as “a sustaining metaphor for what it is to make paintings”.

“There’s a revealing tension there – a subliminal signal of something significant, some clue to understanding our modern lives as outcasts, searching for light, and warmth, and meaning. As a kid I always sneaked over to look in the drawers of the lobby desks, hoping for some kind of sign or surprise. ” – Dan Witz

Dan 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 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. Witz’s work has been featured in publications such as Time, New York andJuxtapoz. 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 is also a well known street artist, balancing his time between making paintings in his studio in Brooklyn. This is Dan Witz’s fifth solo exhibition at DFN Gallery.

An opening reception for the artist will be held on
Wednesday, March 10, 6pm to 8p

DFN Gallery is now located at 74 East 79th Street (between Park & Madison Avenues)
Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11 AM to 7 PM.
For further information please call 212-334-3400 or visit us at www.dfngallery.com

CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW THE ENTIRE EXHIBITION

Our artist D*Face has been busy in LA this week installing skeletonised Oscar sculptures in the run up to the Academy Awards. The 7 foot sculptures have been found at the Runyon Canyon and Hollywood Boulevard with captions that read “‘Beauty is one snip away’ -D*Face,” and “Beauty is skin deep.”

We think they look amazing, click on images to read more…

The Hand coloured collaboration print by Ericailcane, DEM & Will Barras is now available on line, just click the image below to buy.

It will also be available at the show CLOSING party tonight, so please join us from 6pm onwards for a drink.

This Friday sees the opening of the Letter Heads group exhibition at the 1000£Bend Gallery in Melbourne. Featuring 26 artists each depicting a letter from the English alphabet. Including Mr Jago (letter J) and Usugrow and Bene (letter S)

http://www.ltrhds.com/

This months issue of urban contemporary art magazine Juxtapoz features a 10 page piece on the amazing Ericailcane. Featuring a well written article and interview with the artist and some great images.

Kirsty Whiten’s brand NEW print ‘Lace Monkey’ part of the ‘Monkey Relic’ Series is featured on the cover of the new issue of Spanish magazine Lamono.

For all info on the print click the image below:

In Plain View – 30 years of Artworks Illegal and Otherwise is the first and long overdue monograph on the work of Dan Witz. New York artist Dan Witz has been doing street art since the late 1970s. In his enduring street art career, he has specialized in a smaller, more intimate kind of street art. For Witz, a sense of wonder and curiosity are key. Strongly influenced by the changing cultural landscape of the New York City streets where he developed his craft, Witz has traveled the path from dark to light and back again. In the book, his wandering journey through the nowave and DIY movements of New York‘s Lower Eastside of the 70‘s, the Reaganomics of the 80‘s to the flourishing of graffiti art in the new millennium is beautifully illustrated in 250 color photographs and narrated through an interview with the Wooster Collective. Whether stickers or paste-up silk-screened posters, conceptual pranks and interventions, or beautiful tromp l‘oeil paintings, Witz is inspired as much by the nature and subject of his art as by the mutating urban conditions in which the piece is executed. Not content with established boundaries between street and fine art, Witz seems intent on bursting contemporary art-world bubbles by refusing to confine himself to either. His monograph is a study of both the man and his art, with chapters chronicling the transformation of New York City from a once derelict Lower East Side to a shiny new Gotham

“Dan Witz is a true pioneer of the street art movement.
What makes Dan so special is his true passion and love for street art. As many artists on the streets have come and gone over the years, Dan has remained true to the craft and has kept his work alive on the streets since he began over 3 decades ago. I don’t know any other street artists that have been at it that long.” –FAILE

Dan Witz: In Plain View
30 Years of Artworks—Illegal and Otherwise
Publication date: June 1, 2010
216 pages, 9 1/2” x 11”, Hardcover
250 color illustrations, English

ISBN: 978-1-58423-304-6

Price: $39.95
For further information:
Karen Nguyen (510) 898 1195
Fax: (510) 898 1196
e-mail: karen@gingkopress.com

Juxtapoz launched their new Top 100 Galleries x Museums feature online today and we are high on the list!

The section allows viewers to vote and rank their favorite spots, so feel free to vote for us and share the news!

Please click on image below to link…

Many thanks, SS

Artist Profile : WordToMother from Andrew Telling on Vimeo.

This short film explores the creative process of London based artist WordToMother and the lead up to his third solo show ‘Lost For Words’ at Stolen Space Gallery.

Audio + Visuals Produced by Andrew Telling

Grade + Colour by Simon Payne

Thanks to all kind folks at Stolen Space Gallery.

More info on Word To Mother
stolenspace.com/section.php?xSec=42