Born 1971, Munich. Lives and works in London.
1994 BA (Hons) Photography, London College of Printing.
1997 MA Fine Art Photography, Royal College of Art, London.
RESIDENCIES, GRANTS, AWARDS:
2022/23 Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford, Artist in Residence
2022 Arts Council Grant for the Arts
2019 INN-SITU. Innsbruck, Austria
2018 New-York Historical Society Museum, NYC, Artist in Residence
2017 Pollock-Krasner Award
2016 Arts Council Grant for the Arts
2015 Bohuslan Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden, Artist in Residence
2014 The Freud Museum London, Artist in Residence
2011 Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Artist in Residence
SOLO EXHIBITIONS :
2024 Forthcoming Exhibition, The Ashmolean, University of Oxford’s Museum of Art and Archaeology.
2022/23 Artist-in-Residence, The Ashmolean, University of Oxford’s Museum of Art and Archaeology.
2020 Wunderkammer, BTV Stadtforum Innsbruck, Austria.
Meditations in an Emergency, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, USA.
2019 The Followers, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.
2018 Meditations in an Emergency, New-York Historical Society Museum, NYC, USA.
Queens House, National Maritime Museum, London (commission).
2017 Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, USA.
The Sessions, UCIPC NPC, Lake Arrowhead, California, USA.
2016 The Sessions, The Freud Museum, London.
2015 Fotogaleriet, Oslo, Norway, Album 31, (collaboration with Sophy Rickett), touring to The Library of Birmingham, UK.
2014 Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.
Ruby’s Room and other works in Miniature, Barber Institute of fine Arts, Birmingham.
2013 Ruby’s Room, Holburne Museum, Bath.
2012 Made up Love Song, Cultural Centre, Poznan.
2011 Made up Love Song, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.
2009 Profiles III, Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood, London.
2005 Alina, Photographers’ Gallery, London.
2004 Rain, Lombard - Freid Fine Arts, New York.
2002 Victoria Miro Gallery, The Project Space, London.
2001 Galleria Laura Pecci, Milan.
2000 An Anatomy of Control, Lombard-Freid Fine Arts, New York.
An Anatomy of Control, Galleria Laura Pecci, Milan.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS :
2022 Here and Elsewhere, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London
2021 In the Now: Gender and Nation in Europe, Selections from the Sir Mark Fehrs Haukohl Photography Collection,
LACMA, Los Angeles, USA. (touring to NYC, Brooklyn Museum in 2024)
2021 Everything was a Bird, (2 person show with Sophy Rickett), Laure Genillard Gallery, London.
2020 Keeper of the Hearth: Picturing Roland Barthes’ Unseen Photograph, Houston Centre for Photography, Texas, USA [cat].
In Profile: A look at Silhouettes, New York Historical-Society-Museum, NYC, USA.
2019 Too Cute! : Sweet is about to get Sinister, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK.
2018 Circle/Squared, Lisa Sette Gallery, Phoenix, Arizona.
2017 Revival, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA.
Small, Purdy Hicks Gallery, London.
2016 Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna (2 person exhibition).
Beauty and the Beast: The Animal in Photography, San Diego Museum of Photographic Art, USA.
2015 Facing Histories, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Face Value: Portraiture from the Arts Council Collection, Abbothall Art Gallery, UK.
2013 3am: Wonder and Paranoia and the restless Night, The Bluecoat Liverpool.
2012 Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present, The National Gallery, London.
- touring to Fundacio La Caixa, Madrid, Spain, (catalogue).
2011 Another Face: Works from the Arts Council Collection, Hatton Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne.
2010 Road to 2012, Setting Out, Commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
The Gathering, Building the Arts Council Collection 1973 – 2009 Longside Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
2009 Baby, Picturing the Ideal Human, National Media Museum, Bradford.
2008 In Repose, The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia.
El Cuerpo (con) sentido: una (re)presentación visual, Centro de Historia, Zaragosa.
2007 Top Twenty, 39 Gallery, London (curated by Alan Miller).
150th Anniversary Display, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
2006 The Wonderful Fund on Tour, Le Musée de Marrakech, Place Ben Youssef, Medina, Marrakech.
The Photographic Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, London.
2005 ‘iD’, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.
Photography 2005, Victoria Miro Gallery, London.
Faltering Flames: Aspects of the Human Condition in Contemporary Art, curated by David Thorpe, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield.
2004 Fiction, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London.
Taking in Water, Royal Pump Rooms, Royal Leamington Spa, UK.
2003 Parameter of Life, Museum of Modern Art, Stiftung Worlen, Passau.
Imperfect Innocence, Contemporary Museum Baltimore and Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
2002 Reality Check, touring group exhibition jointly organised by the British..
Council and the Photographers’ Gallery, 14 Wharf Road, London (Other venues include Moderna Galleria in Ljubljana Slovenia;
The House of Artists, Zagreb, Croatia; Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic; Poland Bunkier Gallery, Cracow; Latvia Arsenals, Riga).
Geometers, Nylon, London (Curated by Simon Morrissey).
2001 Chelsea Rising, Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans.
Fair Play, Danielle Arnaud, London.
2000 Identities, Galerie Rodolph Jansson, Brussels.
Psycho/Soma, Lombard - Freid Fine Arts, New York.
Breathless! Photography and Time, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
1999 Modern Times I, Hasselblad Center, Goteborg.
Grosse Kunstausstellung, Haus Der Kunst, Munich.
1998 John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London;
Midland Art Centre, Birmingham; Royal Photographic Society, Bath.
Les Anglais vus par les Anglais, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles.
Inventories and Plastic Metropolis, Shoreditch Biennale 1998, London, Various venues.
MONOGRAPHS:
- Bettina von Zwehl, Göttingen: Steidl / Brighton: Photoworks, 2007. With an essay by Darian Leader and interview with Charlotte Cotton.
- Made Up Love Song, London: V&A Publishing, 2014. With an essay by David Chandler.
- Lament, Bettina von Zwehl & Josh Cohen, London, Art/Books, 2016.
- Wunderkammer, Bettina von Zwehl, Fotohof Edition, 2020. With an essay by Ciara Ennis.
SELECTED ANTHOLOGIES AND CATALOGUES:
- The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson, 2004.
- The Portrait Now. Yale University Press, 2006.
- Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography. Phaidon, 2006.
- The Body in Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson, 2009.
- Road to 2012. National Portrait Gallery, 2012.
- 21st Century Portraits. National Portrait Gallery, 2013.
COLLECTIONS:
Arts Council, London
British Council, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
Wonderful Fund Collection, London
Sammlung Spallart, Salzburg, Austria
The Mint Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
Hull Museums and Art Gallery, UK
Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia
Imperial College Art Collection, London
21C Museum Hotel Louisville, Kentucky
LACMA, Los Angeles, USA
Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego
Martin M. Margulies Collection, Miami
Rubell Family Collection, Miami
Perez Art Museum, Miami
The National Museum of Women for the Arts, Washington DC
The National Portrait Gallery Collection, London
Pier 24 Photography, San Francisco
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
GUEST LECTURES / SYMPOSIA:
London College of Communication, UAL
National Portrait Gallery, London
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
UCIPC NPC, Lake Arrowhead, California
Oxford University
Royal College of Art, London
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford