Bettina von Zwehl (b.1971, Germany) is renowned for her innovative work in photography, installation and archival exploration. Drawing on various art historical traditions and visual culture, she intuitively experiments with, and expands, the language of photography.
Her practice has evolved, in large part, through a series of high-profile artist residencies, including The Victoria and Albert Museum (2011), the Freud Museum (2015), the New-York Historical Society Museum (2018), The Queens House, Greenwich (2018) and at BTV Stadtforum Innsbruck in liaison with Castle Ambras, Austria (2019/20).
Most recently she has completed a year-long residency at The Ashmolean, The University of Oxford’s Museum of Art and Archaeology, culminating in a major solo exhibition and publication at the museum in 2024.
“Since 2011, I’ve mostly been working with museums and archives; researching collections has become important to me over the years. Unconsciously, museums seem to be a place where I want to be, for whatever reason … You wonder how an object has been passed on through generations – if it was donated, sold, stolen, or looted – before it was accepted into the collection where it might be studied, conserved, loaned, moved, and moved again. All these layers of history embedded within one object – let alone in one room, or one collection, or one museum.”
- Extract from an In Conversation with Stephen Grosz (2023)
Photo by Ruby RobinsonLiving and working in London, von Zwehl holds a BA in Photography from the London College of Printing and an MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art. A four-time recipient for project grants from Arts Council England, she was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant in 2018.
Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at The Photographers Gallery, London (2005), The National Portrait Gallery (2012), The Holburn Museum, Bath (2013), The Freud Museum, London and Vienna (2015/16), The New-York Historical Society Museum (2018) and BTV Stadtforum Insbruck, Austria (2020).
She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including The National Gallery, London, (2012), Bluecoat Gallery Liverpool (2013), The Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2015), San Diego Museum of Photographic Art, USA (2016); The National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington DC (2017).
Publications include Bettina von Zwehl - Monograph (Steidl/Photoworks 2007), Made Up Love Song (V&A 2012), Lament (Art/Books 2016), and Wunderkammer (Fotohof Salzburg 2020).
Her work is represented in museum collections worldwide including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina; LACMA, Los Angeles; Victoria and Albert Museum, Arts Council Collection, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Rubell Family Collection, Miami, Florida; and Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco.
Studio detail, London 2024