Following his recognition at the STRABAG ART Award 2026, Berlin-based artist Daniel Hölzl presents BOTANICAL ROTATION, a solo exhibition on view from November 6 through December 3, 2026, at STRABAG ART Site in Vienna, Austria. Bringing together wax paintings and sculptural installations, the exhibition explores the relationship between material, transformation, and the cycles of decay and renewal. Hölzl examines the intersection of natural processes and industrial production, questioning ideas of permanence, progress, and the passage of time.
An interplay of transience and renewal runs through Daniel Hölzl’s works. Using recycled paraffin wax, carbon fibre and fragments of airplane propellers, the artist creates a visual world that reflects the cyclical nature of life. In his wax paintings, wilting flowers and deformed machine parts are placed in a formal relationship with one another. He replaces traditional painting materials: wax becomes paint, carbon fibre becomes the support—both petroleum-based materials, both with a history of their own. Melted-out grid lines are reminiscent of digital image artefacts and heighten the viewer’s awareness of the interplay between material and content. Like the withering flower in a Baroque still life, airplane fragments become symbols of transience in a present characterised by progress and acceleration. Thus, the propeller also becomes a metaphor for society. Its rotation can symbolize the cycles of nature and human ingenuity. A newly created installation featuring an upright radial engine alludes to natural cycles and opens up perspectives on renewal and growth—in the eternal cycle of becoming and passing away.
— Dr. Madeleine Freund, Curator, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
For further information on the artist and the works please contact Owen Clements, owen(at)dittrich-schlechtriem(dot)com.
