Dan Witz

Berlin

The most captivating aspect of Dan Witz’s night paintings is his use of light, which simultaneously invokes a feeling of intimacy and isolation. His hybrid approach of combining old master techniques and new digital technology catalyzes an evocative effect of banal life dipping into new mystery. Dan Witz allows us to suspend our disbelief long enough to enter the fascinating world of art. Using physical light as a metaphor for spiritual revelation and enlightenment, Witz refers to religious painting traditions. Influenced by the baroque chiaroscuro technique, he illuminates his subjects by using strong contrasts between light and dark, creating an illusion of depth, form, light, and shadow. In these pieces, he also references the work of Joseph Right of Derby and Ed Ruscha’s iconic gasoline stations.

Taking a digital print as the starting point, Witz covers most of the surface with layers of oil paint to recreate the artificial light. The resulting image captures the scene in a way neither a photograph nor a painting could do all by itself. As Witz explains, „I am concerned with exploring what oil paint on canvas can uniquely do, that no other visual media can. Above all, I am fascinated by oil painting’s extraordinary ability to create light—not just evoke light, but to palpably reproduce the experience of light.”

Dan Witz

Gestalten Space

April 26 – June 8, 2013
Sophienstraße 21
10178 Berlin
Germany

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