Gabriel Holzner was born in 1983 in a small town in Bavaria and studied communication design in Augsburg (Ger) and illustration, printmaking, and textile design in Kingston (Jam). After his graduation with honors in 2009 he moved on to work as a freelance illustrator and designer for 10 years. Since 2020 he has been focussing on his personal art practice with solo exhibitions in Munich and Vienna, print edition releases, collaborations, and residencies in Portugal and Cape Town.

Gabriel Holzner has developed a visual language that reflects a variety of influences: from his academic background in design, illustration and printmaking, to expressionism, pop art, graffiti, and different subcultures. Gabriel communicates his ideas mostly through abstracted figurative scenes, precisely formed, sometimes digitally arranged, and brought to life with acrylic paint or oil sticks on large-scale canvases or wood panels. Despite his boldly condensed visual language, he addresses the enduring complexity of living in the world. By bringing a sense of calm and structure to chaotic and noisy situations, he combines contradictory ideas into compelling compositions. Like many of his generation, Gabriel was shaped by the DIY (Do it yourself) ethos of hip-hop culture as well as the artists behind the film Beautiful Losers (2008). He has been defining his own spaces for his works through exhibitions, labels, collaborations, social media, public art, and printmaking in order to make his art accessible to all.

PADA STUDIOS (LISBON) / ARC COLLECT (MUNICH) / NOW GALLERY (LONDON) / GALERIE KÖNIG (BERLIN) / SUBLIMINAL (LA) / KK OUTLET (LONDON) / GREEN LABEL GALLERY (NEW YORK) / STUDIO WALLS (VIENNA)