Dan Witz: Mosh Pits – an extraordinary series of paintings (yes, paintings)

We originally covered Dan Witz’ series of hyper-real mosh pit oil paintings back in March 2012. He’s now about to open a new solo show in New York, so we felt it was high time we revisited this extraordinary body of work.

Look again. These aren’t photographs, oh no. They’re photo-realistic paintings crafted by the deft hand of Dan Witz. Born in Chicago and exhibiting for over two decades, Witz has honed his hyper-detailed style down to something that’s got to be part art, part science. Plus, I bet he’s a bit of a legend at gigs, the one who suspends himself trapeze-style above a writhing crowd, palette and paintbrush in hand. Actually I have no idea how he makes them, but technicalities are irrelevant in the face of such awesomeness.