AGE: 31
BASED IN: New York
Witt Fetter has painted the White House Situation Room, an inflatable slide in the shape of the sinking Titanic, and a highway advisory sign announcing a false missile alert. The Los Angeles-born, New York-based artist blows up these real-life scenes of American surreality and bathes them in a dreamy, violet-blue haze. Her buzzy outings at Fierman and Derosia galleries have made her one of the most visible figures in a cohort of young artists remaking famous images in an effort to understand and expose the hold pop culture has over us.
Describe one work you’ve made that captures who you are as an artist.
In Diana, 2022, a woman sits on the edge of a diving board suspended over the ocean. The painting is a self-portrait that traces the compositional structure of a photograph of Princess Diana. The work is an aesthetic gesture with deeply personal resonance and an exploration of visual signs that circulate within a network of images. Like a Möbius strip, I want a painting to function as a continuous plane that points in two directions—inwards into a mythology of the self and outwards into a specific historical and cultural context.
Describe your work in three words.
My practice is motivated by grief, desire, and faith. It mourns the inevitability of loss, it yearns to establish a connection between myself and the other, and it is committed to the possibility of transcendence.
Tell us about a teacher who changed the way you think about art.
My grandfather introduced me to oil painting when I was 10 years old. He taught me how to mix colors, render forms, and depict light, shadow, and atmosphere. This is when I began to recognize the colors I use today in the landscapes of my childhood growing up in Southern California. As a tribute to my grandfather, I begin each of my paintings with an undercoat of violet, just as he did with his paintings.
What art-world trend would you like to see die out?
Fluorescent lighting in galleries and press releases that read like riddles.
Is there a studio rule you live by?
Unfortunately the only studio rules I have are ones that I fail to live by.
What’s an underrated studio tool you can’t live without?
The studio sofa is a place to contemplate, envision, and sleep. It provides a protective shelter amidst the turbulence of my creative psyche.
Who are the three people, alive or dead, invited to your dream art-world dinner party?
Jack Whitten, Paul Thek, and the quantum physicist Carlo Rovelli.
See CULTURED’s full 2025 Young Artists list and access other individual artist profiles here.
in your life?
