Recent Works

Dan Witz

May 23rd - July 24th 2009

From the 80s, Dan Witz is internationally recognized for its practice of Street Art. He paints on the walls of New York small trompe-l'oeil such his "hoodies", characters without face hidden under their hood. His perfect control of the painting technics allows him to embellish the urban spaces by decorating them with birds, boats or with characters appearing behind railings. These wall works propose us a poetic vision of the city by sending us a social message tinged with humor.

Besides this work of streets, the paintings of Dan Witz reveal us a very personal vision of the suburb. The alarming urban atmosphere which they reflect reminds the painting of the ancient Flemish masters pushing the realism until the illness. Using all the resources of the oil painting, the artist mixes his urban references stemming from his experience of the street with a very classic culture. It appears from it a universe close to the chaos.

The series of "Mosh Pit", troops of people or animals in movement, sends back to the choreography punk rock which ritualise the violence. This heap of body without humanity invades all the space of the painting and gives the dizziness. The canvas of Dan Witz express with violence a vision of the human nature which at the same time seduces and inconforte. 

Other approach, the "Night Paintings" restore a suburb without soul to the invoice seemingly classic and to the purified lines. The facades of shops and houses in the peace of mind of a felted light spring from the darkness which abandons an impression of space and mystery. It's that  became tool and main subject of all the works of the painter, the light allows him to reveal the outlines of a vague and terrible world in which each can get lost.

 Dan Witz is also the portrait painter of these contemporary icons in the pious and silent ghostly presence, these faces seized by the only beam of mobile phones. Rarely the alienation of our lifestyle mixing human heat and artificial radiation have been so subtly revealed to us. It is about a determinedly modern approach  which transcends the classic representation of madones in their halo of light to seize dangers and fears of the current society. 

On the occasion of the exhibition which will take place from May 23rd till July 24th, 2009, ADDICT gallery invites you to discover the fascinating world of the artist, a work which throws a dark movie on the canvas, a vision of the society which by means of intimacy touches the main part of our preoccupations.