Born in 1967 in Dresden, lives in Berlin. Holzapfel studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden from 1996 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he was a master student of Professor Ralf Kerbach. From 2001 to 2002 he studied at the National Institute of Design (NID) with Singanapali Balaram, Ahmedabad, India and was an artist in residence at Columbia University in New York.
From 2006 to 2008 Holzapfel taught as a visiting professor for painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe and from 2008 to 2010 as a visiting professor for sculpture at the HfbK Hamburg. He lives and works in Berlin.
In 2001 Olaf Holzapfel received the Hegenbarth scholarship, in 2002 he was a scholarship holder of the Philip Morris Art Fund and the DAAD. In 2014 he was awarded the Gerhard Altenbourg Prize.
Olaf Holzapfel is a participant in documenta 14 in Kassel and Athens.