A Different Kind of Human

Exhibition & Residency / Cape Town / South Africa
23.11.2023 – 19.02.2024

"A Different Kind of Human" was a solo exhibition by German artist Gabriel Holzner in February 2024, marking the culmination of his three-month residency at the Cape Town Art Residency in South Africa. During this time, Holzner sought to rethink his creative process, experiment with new techniques, and let both the spacious studio environment and the vibrant city of Cape Town influence his paintings.

The resulting works included three large-scale canvases, a series of three montaged multi-frame paintings, and four pieces on wood panels, incorporating acrylic paint, oil sticks, pastels, and charcoal. Each of these artworks was grounded in a rigorous daily drawing ritual.

For over 60 consecutive days, the artist began his mornings with free, large-scale drawing sessions. This practice not only generated ideas and compositions for the exhibition but also helped bridge the gap between initial sketches and the final painted pieces, a challenge Holzner had been focusing on for some time.

The ritual produced hundreds of drawings, concepts, and studies on paper. In "A Different Kind of Human," Gabriel Holzner continues to use his keen sense of color and form to express his interpretation of the human experience, while integrating more expressive and experimental mark-making techniques.