Daniel Hollier

Bent Straight, Straight Bend

February 6th – 28th, 2026

Daniel Hollier Catalogue | Bent Straight, Straight Bend

Bent Straight, Straight Bend brings together a body of paintings shaped by a deliberate tension between control and release. Although the works may initially read as precise, even machine-like, each is made outdoors, where conditions introduce an unavoidable lack of control. This is intentional. The paintings are constructed through processes that invite unpredictability, allowing humanness to quietly disrupt order.

Before painting, I spend time with the shape—listening, waiting, trying to tune into what it might suggest rather than imposing a fixed idea upon it. As layers of coloured ground are applied, I pause again to watch and reconsider its form, its weight, and its possible meanings. A painting may pass through several colours and compositions, accumulating decisions, hesitations, and reversals along the way.

The works begin with a source, but they do not remain loyal to it. As the process unfolds, the paintings move away from translation and towards abstraction, absorbing multiple references that enter the conversation between shape, memory, and material. I ask what the shape recalls, what colour it wants to be, and how far it is willing to bend away from its origins.

Rather than pursuing a preconceived mental image, I try to let those expectations fall away. What remains is a dialogue between painting and process, where the shape can assert itself—sometimes insisting on a different surface treatment, sometimes resisting resolution. In this space between bent and straight, intention and accident, the work finds its own uneasy balance.

Daniel Hollier is a Sydney/Dharug & Gundungurra – based artist working across painting, drawing and sculpture. Hollier’s work draws on disparate influences from art history to natural sciences and philosophy. He is particularly attuned to fleeting moments and unnoticed fragments, believing they hold deeper meaning. These observations become starting points for abstraction, transforming the ordinary into something reimagined. Using irregularly shaped canvases and a variety of painting processes, Hollier blurs the line between what is seen and what is interpreted. His work balances precision with unpredictability, capturing the interconnected nature of things. He invites viewers to tune in to the subtle language of the world, reframing the mundane as something meaningful and mysterious.

Hollier teaches Drawing and Art Processes at the Sydney School of Architecture, Sydney University. His work is held in the Artbank collection as well as private collections in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands.

image: Daniel Hollier ‘Jump starter; the putting green’, 2025, Synthetic Polymer Paint on Polyester, 1100 x 1100 (Dimensions Variable)