REALITY AS A FLEETING EXPERIENCE
From an early age, Bettina Sellmann (born 1971) began exploring the central questions of transience, meaning, and perception—themes that would later form the foundation of her artistic work. During and after her artistic training at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and Hunter College in New York, where she lived for eleven years, she developed a distinctive visual language. This masterfully combines the classical tradition of painting with contemporary visual culture.
Sellmann’s works move along the boundary between illusion and reality. In transparent layers of color and flowing forms, we encounter figures from Baroque, Pop, and Kawaii culture that oscillate between presence and dissolution. Her painting technique—a sensitive interplay of intuition, control, and chance—makes the immaterial, fleeting, and illusory aspects of reality visible.
Bettina Sellmann is a master student of Thomas Bayrle and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree. She has been awarded the DAAD annual scholarship and participated in the renowned Skowhegan Residency Program, among other honors. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 2010. Her works are exhibited internationally and represented in important collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
COLLECTIONS
MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), New York City, USA Bettina Sellmann @ MoMA Collection I Olbricht Collection I Oberfinanzdirektion Frankfurt am Main I International private collections
AWARDS
2022 Kunstfonds Neustart-Stipendium (New Start Grant by the Kunstfonds Bonn, Germany) I 2020 Sonderstipendium des Berliner Senats (Special Grant by the Senate of Berlin, Germany) I 1999 DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) – Year Grant for New York City, USA I 1997 Skowhegan Summer Residency Program, Maine, USA (full scholarship) I 1995 Erasmus Grant for Paris, France
SOLO SHOWS / 2- AND 3-PERSON EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2025 Easymagic123, Kunsthaus Troisdorf, Germany I 2024 Transforming Identity, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I Galerie Schindler, Potsdam, Germany I Easymagic123, Gmünder Kunstverein, Germany I Easymagic123, Kurfürstliches Gärtnerhaus, Bonn, Germany I 2021 Easymagic123, Kunstverein Offenbach, Germany I 2019 Glam magic manufactoray, Oberfinanzdirektion, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I 2018 Diaikone, Weißfrauen Diakoniekirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I 2017 Punktlandung, Galerie 21.06, Ravensburg, Germany I 2015 US Paintings, Gilla Lörcher I Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany I Spiral, Square and Dickie-Bow, Wolfstädter Galerie, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I 2013 Magic Every Day, Gilla Lörcher I Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany I 2009 Taina, cosmogeny, make your own paper dragon, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY, USA I 2007 Works 2004–2006, Galerie Frank Schlag, Essen, Germany I 2006 Bettina Sellmann, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY, USA I 2004 Armor & Etiquette, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY, USA
GROUP SHOWS (SELECTION)
2025 POSITIONS ART FAIR, Booth of Galerie Greulich, Berlin, Germany I ZOOOM – The Personal is Political, Arsenał Municipal Gallery Poznán, Poland I FOYOU, Berlin, Germany I 2024 Jenseits von Eden, Galerie Neurotitan, Berlin, Germany I Made In Berlin, Galerie 21.06, Ravensburg, Germany I 2023 PORTRAIT I, Galerie Tammen, Berlin, Germany I MISSTORY, Kunstverein Familie Montez, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I ALL TOGETHER NOW, Galerie Tammen, Berlin, Germany I 2022 Essence of Color – Blue, Municipal Gallery Im Leeren Beutel, Museums of the City of Regensburg, Germany I WAN(N) DA, Galerie Greulich, Frankfurt am Main, Germany I Kickline, Thaler Originalgrafik, Leipzig, Germany I 2021 Popup Pickup, Works by 180 international artists on magnets, Lübeck, Germany I 2020 Sweet Nothing Sweet, Kunstverein KISS, Abtsgmünd-Untergröningen, Germany I No)body is perfect, Galerie 21.06, Ravensburg, Germany I Alptraum, TAM Torrance Art Museum, California, USA I 2019 Voix, Museum der bildenden Künste (MdbK), Leipzig, Germany I Paint: The Seen, the Unseen and the Imagined, Messums Wiltshire, Tisbury
