Dan Witz

Background

Dan Witz was born on October 19, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

Education

Dan Witz attended Rhode Island School of Design from 1975 - 1977 and came to New York in 1978 to attend Cooper Union, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1980.

Career

In 1982, Dan Witz received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1992 and 2000, he received fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and in 1998 he received a fellowship from the Public Art Fund. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

With a career spanning over three decades, Dan Witz has evolved from being a pioneer of the street art movement to refining a studio practice that incorporates both digital and old master techniques. Influenced by the work of Renaissance painters Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel, his large-scale oil paintings of rampant crowds embody a rebellious and provocative nature that’s heightened by a stunning hyperreal aesthetic.

Witz' work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. He has been featured in many publications including The Wall Street Journal, TIME Magazine, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post and ARTINFO.

Achievements

• Dan Witz is best known for his witty, trompe l’oeil stickers and silkscreen paste-up posters, such as "Holes" (1996 - 1999), a series of pieces he pasted around Brooklyn that suggested holes in their respective surfaces. He painted more than one hundred works.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • LA Bodega

    2010

  • Dogs Diptych

    2003

  • Sandi (Sorrowing)

    2016

  • Free for All

    2014

  • Jillian Dolorosa (Sorrowing)

    2015

  • 70 commercial street

    2010

  • Shrine

    2006

  • Danish Hot Dog Stand

    2008

  • Girls putting on makeup

    2006

  • Agnostic Front Circle Pit

    2014

  • Tiffy Hoody Gas Mask

    2011

  • EDC

    2017

  • Kenmare and Elizabeth

    2005

  • Hoodys Kissing

    2011

  • Vision of Disorder Study B

    2014

  • Vision of Disorder Frieze

    2013

  • Byronesque - White Study

    2013

  • Byronesque

    2012

  • Brite Nite 1

    2014

  • Laura

    2008

  • Colleen

    2011

  • Acheron Study

    2014

  • Mosh Pit Study Anarchy

    2014

  • 70 commercial street. small.

  • Ilene's leg

    1999

  • Garden Gate LA

  • 70 Commercial St (square)

    2011

  • Old man and young girl

    2006

  • Viking Hotel Lamp

    2007

  • Brite Nite 2

    2014

  • A Small Orgy

    2015

  • Upper East Side Hotel Lobby Lamp

  • Vision of Disorder Grey Study

    2013

  • Vision of Disorder Club Revolution Study D

    2013

  • Scrum 1 (King of Hearts)

    2015

  • I Feel...

    2016

  • Big Mosh Pit

    2007

  • Sick Of It All

    2015

  • Agnostic Front Crowd Study

    2014

  • Scrum 4 (Microphone)

    2016

  • Sapphire Lounge

    2008

  • Mosh Pit

    2000

  • Brent Jumpsuit

    2012

  • Hoody Gas Mask

    2011

  • Grand Central Station

    2008

  • Bar Shrine #2 Triptych

  • School Street

    2006

  • Scrum 3 (System of a Down)

    2015

  • Lotus Lounge big

    2010

  • Park Ave. Lobby Lamp (Annunciation)

  • Highland Park, III

    2006

  • Kedzie Ave. Chicago, III

    2006

  • Hermano & Deli. caption: Brooklyn, NY

    2007

  • Econo Lodge

    2006

  • Mosh Pit I

    2007

  • Vision of Disorder

    2013

  • Byronesque - Jonathan

    2013

  • Park Ave Lobby Lamp with Telephone

  • 2 girls

    2007

  • Scrum 2 (All Out War)

    2015

  • Agnostic Front Camo Study

    2014

  • Pennsylvania traveler's hotel

    2006

  • Mosh Pit Study Jets

    2014

  • El Chubasco, LA

    2010

  • May

    2010

  • Tony Hooded

    2011

  • M

    2011

  • Raquel

    2011

  • Park Ave Lobby Lamps with Poinsettia

  • Byronesque Blue Study

    2013

  • Scrum Study (The Flash)

    2015

  • Tiffy Hostage

    2011

  • Mo

    2010

  • J&J liquor

    2005

  • Ruth Baghead

    2012

  • Man of Sorrows

    2011

  • Sherburne Hotel Lamp

  • Nadeen

    2010

  • Orgy (Big)

    2016

  • R&N Grocery

    2005

  • Hoody

    1996

  • Dogs Fighting

    2002

  • ABC No Rio

    2011

  • Rats

    2001

  • Byronesque 3

    2015

  • New Jersey Office Park

    2009

  • KW

    2011

  • Byronesque 2

    2013

  • Lamp in window

    2003

  • Byronesque Study - Justin

    2013

  • Bus shelter 1

    2008

  • Elevator Door

    2006

  • Anna (Sorrowing)

    2016

  • Econo Lodge Lamp #3

  • Agnostic Front

    2014

  • Keith Blue Jumpsuit

    2012

  • Natasha

    2007

  • Rosy cell phone

    2007

  • Lotus Lounge

    2008

  • Hooded Girl With Ball Gag

    2011

  • Lantern & Flashlight

  • Rosy's Lamp

    2006

  • Bar Shrine #3 M Shanghai

  • Raja Foods

    2006

  • Winnetka, III

    2006

  • Mona and Melissa

    2011

  • Elizabeth

    2007

  • Vision of Disorder Club Revolution Study A

    2013

  • 5 Ludlow

    2012

  • Womp

    2016

Views

Quotations: "I’m an academic realist painter, but I’m living in the 21st century, so I’m not going to be painting Roman soldiers invading, or some gothic baroque composition…The highest aspiration of an academic realist painter are these big group figure paintings, and I’m using the hardcore scene as my subject."

"The print’s imagery is a great representation of the collaboration between me and Dior Homme. Not only does it reference the mosh pit paintings and the wonderful HarDior clothing, but the skate deck shape adds an element of the street, the place where Kris Van Assche and I both find inspiration."

References

• Dan Witz: In Plain View The gamut of Dan Witz's output over the past thirty years is truly amazing. Containing the raw power and range of the work in a book is a nearly impossible task as the artist's work rails against constraints conceptual or practical.