Gabriel Holzner (GABE), b. 1983, is an multidisciplinary artist from southern Germany, whose bold and human artworks can be found on city walls, as art prints and painted canvases or even on a basketball court.

Biography
Gabriel Holzner (GABE) 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 two successful solo exhibitions in Munich, print edition releases, collaborations, and his first residency at Pada Studios in Portugal in 2023.
Artist Statement
Gabriel Holzner (GABE) 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. Like Keith Haring, he has been processing the world through drawings from early on and continues the drawing routine as the foundation for his artistic practice. GABE communicates his ideas mostly through abstracted figurative scenes, precisely formed and digitally arranged and brought to life with acrylic paint on large-scale canvases or wood panels. Despite his boldly simplified 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, GABE 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.
Galleries
PADA STUDIOS (LISBON) / ARC COLLECT (MUNICH) / NOW GALLERY (LONDON) / GALERIE KÖNIG (BERLIN) / SUBLIMINAL (LA) / KK OUTLET (LONDON) / GREEN LABEL GALLERY (NEW YORK)

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Do you want to be informed early when new original artworks or limited print editions will be available? Please sign up here.

Do you want to be informed early when new original artworks or limited print editions will be available? Please sign up here.

Do you want to be informed early when new original artworks or limited print editions will be available? Please sign up here.

Projects

Art Residency & Group Show / Pada Studios / 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. Gabe 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, Gabe was invited by the German Embassy to collaborate with Jamaican Artist Matthew McCarthy and create a mural in Downtown Kingston.

For Gabe, 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 Gabe'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, Gabe's artworks could have been seen by appointment or from the street though Arc Collect Gallery's beautiful display windows.

The show was sold out.


* Photos © Fritz Buziek & Nolema Studio

»Hope« Limited Screen-Print Edition / 2022

»Hope« is an uplifting Gabe 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 my exhibition "We had a hell of a run", in my online shop and in Hamburg at Post Kultur.

Comissioned Paintings / 2022

In 2021 Gabe 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 Gabe 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, Gabe 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.

Gabe 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 graphic artist GABE, 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, GABE created bespoke artworks that bring 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 Gabe 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 been a staple in the creative world with hundreds of thousands of pounds being raised 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″ showed and auctioned three artworks of Gabe, that visualize songs of Bob Dylan, Arethat Franklin and Koffee.

Buy fine art prints of this project.

»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, Gabe's current rural sourroundings and also having the time to study and appreciate its nature were part of the inspiration as well.

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©  2009 — 2023 GABRIEL HOLZNER.
NO USE OF ANY CONTENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

©  2009 — 2020 GABRIEL HOLZNER.
NO USE OF ANY CONTENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

©  2009 — 2019 GABRIEL HOLZNER.
NO USE OF ANY CONTENT WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION.

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