Gabriel Holzner, b. 1983, is a multidisciplinary artist from southern Germany, whose bold and human artworks can be found on city walls, as painted canvases and print editions or even on a basketball court.

Projects

»A Different Kind of Human« Residency & Solo Exhibition / Cape Town Art Residency / Cape Town / 23.11.2023 – 19.02.2024

A Different Kind of Human" was a solo exhibition by Gabriel Holzner in February 2024. It marked the culmination of his three-month stay at the Cape Town Art Residency in South Africa.

During this period, the artist aimed to rethink his process of art-making, experiment with new techniques, and allow the spacious studio environment as well as the city of Cape Town to influence his paintings.

The results include three large-scale canvases, a series of three montaged multi-frame paintings, as well as four works on wood panels, incorporating acrylic paint, oil sticks, pastels, and charcoal.

All of the artworks are based on a rigorous daily drawing ritual. For more than 60 consecutive days, Gabriel began his early mornings with free and large-scale drawing sessions. The ritual resulted in hundreds of drawings, concepts, and studies on paper.

»Synergy« Mural / Commissioned / Munich / 2024

Gabriel Holzner was commissioned by Hines Real Estate for their project "Lovt" to create a mural, that references various phases of the area "Werksviertel" in Munich.

Gabriel used his visual language to create a joyful artwork, that pops in a mainly corporate surrounding and also touch on the industrial background, the history in club culture, as well as the collobrative and creational aspect of the "Werksviertel" today.

With its 350 sqm the result is the artist's biggest public work to date.

»Englischer Garten« Series / Commissioned Paintings / 2023

With the "Englischer Garten" series, Gabriel aimed to foster an open and engaging atmosphere within a new Munich-based office building.
 
The objective was to craft three large-scale paintings that capture Munich's distinctive character and inspire individuals to embrace living and working in the city.
 
Numerous aspects that contribute to the city's livability unfold within one of the world's largest public parks, the "Englischer Garten." This urban oasis offers the chance to swim, relax, and even surf, making it a truly unique space.
 
The "Englischer Garten" served as the primary muse for this commissioned painting series. Through Gabe's artistic exploration between the figurative and the abstract, he constructed a realm of human connection, nature, and activity. His depictions of the mourning willows, the Eisbach, and the renowned river surfers came to life through an earthy color palette inspired by Service Now, seamlessly connecting various facets of the space with its people and the city of Munich.

»More Life« Solo pop-up exhibition / Live w/ Art Gallery / Munich / 04.11.2023

Lissie Kieser and Gabriel Holzner share not only a long-standing friendship but also a history of collaborative projects in Munich. Among their joint ventures are works for a solo exhibition at Utopia and the art basketball court at Sugar Mountain.

With the one-day pop-up exhibition "More Life," they presented Gabriel's art in a personal living room atmosphere. The showcase featured a series of original paintings, created with acrylic paint on wooden panels, exploring the theme of 'Heimat' (homeland). Additionally, there was a collection of art prints and the artist's initial foray into the world of objects on display.

The location for this event offers a "back to the roots" experience, as Lissie's living room temporarily transformed into a gallery for the day. This approach to exhibiting art by friendly artists will become a more frequent occurrence as part of their "Live w/ Art" project.

»Press – Pause – Play« Duo Exhibition / Gallery Arc Collect / Munich / 05.09. – 30.09.2023

Embark on a captivating artistic journey as 'Press - Pause - Play' invites you to explore the creative fusion of Max Freund and Gabriel Holzner in the windows of Arc Collect.

Freshly settled in Vienna, Holzner's recent move sets the stage for an enriching collaboration with Freund, following his successful solo exhibition at Arc Collect in 2022. In this joint dual exhibition, the dynamic interplay of Freund's material-focused exploration and Holzner's precisely formed figures is the leading topic.

You can learn more about this duo show on arccollect.com.

»Peace of mind« Screen-print edition / Printed by Viadukt Vienna / Coming soon

"Peace of mind" is screen-print edition that was made in collaboration with print studio Viadukt in Vienna. The artwork is an reduced adaption of one of Gabriel's originial paintings with the same name. It is a two color hand-printed artwork on 300g Munken Pure paper. It comes signend and numbered and is limited to 40 prints.

This print edition is currently part of the duo show "Press-Pause - Play" at Arc Collect in Munich and will be available online in October.

If you want to be notified for the online release, please sign up for the newsletter.

»Humanity for all« T-shirt artwork for SOS Humanity / With Armed Angels / 2023

With a t-shirt adaption of his artwork "HUMANITY FOR ALL" Gabriel collaborated with Armed Angels for SOS Humanity to emphasize the undeniable human rights of all people and to raise money for their rescue missions in the Mediterranean Sea.

SOS Humanity is a non-governmental search and rescue organization, that has saved 34,631 human beings from drowning on the most dangerous refugee route in the world as part of the European SOS Mediterranee Network.

The t-shirt print sold out three times and raised more than 30,000 Euros. Another round of t-shirts will be released in December of 2023.

You can support this project here.

»Pada Group 37« Residency & Group Exhibition / Barreiro / Lisbon / Portugal / 2023

Pada Studios is an art residency and gallery in Barreiro / Portugal founded by artist Tim Ralston. Nine artists at a time are enabled to work in the spacous studio near Lisbon, inspired by the unique post-industrial site.

Gabriel used his time at Pada to experiment with tequniques and evolve into a more free painting practice as well as getting into an exchange with his peers of Pada group 37.

The results were paintings, paper-cut collages and large-scale freestyle paintings. By the end of April the group of artists showcased their work in Pada's own gallery. The exhibition was curated by Tânia Geiroto Marcelino.

You can learn more about this residency and exhibtion in the exhibitions section.

Collaboration Mural / Commissioned by the German Embassy / Kingston / Jamaica 2022

In December 2022, Gabriel was invited by the German Embassy to collaborate with Jamaican Artist Matthew McCarthy and create a mural in Downtown Kingston.

For Gabriel, it was the return to a place that played a major role in his development as a person and artist since his time at Edna Manley College in Kingston more than a decade ago.

Celebrating 60 years of Jamaican-German friendship the mural fuses Jamaican and German culture as part of the "Art Walk", a series of uplifting Murals in Water Lane, initiated by Kinston Creative. 

You can learn more about this project in the collaboration section.

»We had a hell of a run« Solo Exhibition / Gallery Arc Collect / Munich / 29.07. – 20.10.2022

"We had a hell of a run" was Gabriel Holzner's second solo exhibiton in Munich and presented original-large scale paintings on canvas, big works on wood panels as well as print editions.

After a succesful vernissage in June, Gabriel's artworks could have been seen by appointment or from the street though Arc Collect Gallery's beautiful display windows.


* Photos © Fritz Buziek & Nolema Studio

»Hope« Limited Screen-Print Edition / 2022

»Hope« is an uplifting artwork that was masterfully screen-printed by Le Raclet in Berlin.

The edition is limited to 15 prints of each of the three colorways and comes on heavy and beautiful cream paper stock, embossed, signed, and numbered.

The »Hope« Edition was exclusively available at Gabriel's exhibition "We had a hell of a run" and in his online shop.

Comissioned Paintings / 2022

In 2021 Gabriel was commissioned by a private client to create three large-scale paintings based on existing fine art print editions of his.

He adapted the compositions for the new formats and for one painting, changed it entirely.

If you see an art print by Gabriel that you are interested in, but would like to have as a large-scale original painting, feel free to get in touch.

»Resilience« Art Print Series / 2021 – 2022

By the end of 2021, Gabriel Holzner dropped his most extensive fine art print series to date.

The collection of limited edition fine art prints, risographs, and art posters celebrates human resilience in beautiful forms.

You can shop the whole collection here.

* Cover photo © Kim Fohmann für allmannwappner

»We ball together« Basketball Court / In collaboration with FC Bayern Basketball / 2021

Sugar Mountain is a non-profit project that transformed an old industrial area in Munich into a temporary place for community, sports, culture, and arts.

There are many outdoor opportunities, that are free to use for the public and from the beginning, there were plans to build a basketball court as well.

Gabriel was enabled to create uplifting artworks for two courts as well as two 30 meter high murals next to them.

Buy fine art prints of this project.

»In this Together?« Exhibition / Flushing Meadows / Munich / 2021

“In this Together?” was an outdoor art exhibition by Gabriel Holzner, that celebrated local creative communities and resilience in the face of cultural crisis. Unsupported and isolated by the pandemic, artists and creatives have had to support each other during these challenging times.

Inspired by conversations with five of his favourite, fellow creatives from Munich, Gabriel created bespoke artworks that brought each of his collaborators’ stories to life.

Buy fine art prints of this project.

»Utopia« Solo Exhibition / Utopia / Munich / 2020

Utopia Munich opened its doors as a location for cultural events in June 2020. The historic building with its spacial architecture is a perfect match for art exhibitions, and Gabriel was asked to hold his first solo show there.

The result was a lockdown inspired collection of graphic art –from a massive 5 m painting and art prints to apparel and original pieces.

Buy fine art prints of this project.

»Secret 7″« Group Exhibition / Now Gallery / London / 14.10. – 01.11.2020

Secret 7″ is a London-based art event, that invites artists all over the world to create record-sleeves for a selection of 7 famous tunes. The chosen sleeves were exhibited anonymously at Now Gallery and later auctioned online for a good cause.

Since 2012 Secret 7″ has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity as well as managing to have artists like David Shrigley, Jenny Holzer and Peter Blake contributing artwork.

In its final edition, Secret 7″ auctioned three artworks of Gabriel Holzner, that visualize songs of Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and Koffee.

»A to Z of Niceness« / Lockdown Project / 2020

"At to Z of niceness" was a drawing challenge initiated by Grand Matter at the beginning of the Covid-19 lockdown.

The goal was to keep oneself busy and optimistic by creating one artwork for each letter of the alphabet. Every letter defined a word that inspired the artwork.

Aside the words, that defined the theme for each creation, Gabriel's current rural sourroundings and also having the time to study and appreciate its nature were part of the inspiration as well.