REALITY AS A FLEETING EXPERIENCE
Bettina Sellmann (born 1971) navigates the intersection of illusion and reality in her work. Figures from Baroque, pop, and kawaii culture appear in transparent layers of color and flowing forms, oscillating between presence and dissolution. Her painting technique—a combination of intuition, control, and chance—reveals the immaterial, fleeting, and processual nature of reality.
Even as a young girl, Sellmann was preoccupied with questions of transience and the meaning of life—an attitude that continued to take shape during her artistic training. Trained at the Städelschule in Frankfurt (under Thomas Bayrle, Christa Näher, and Jörg Immendorff), the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and Hunter College in New York City—where she lived for eleven years—Sellmann developed a visual language that combines classical painting tradition and contemporary visual culture. Her art invites viewers to question familiar patterns of perception and opens up spaces for awareness beyond fixed categories.
Her works have been shown internationally and are part of important collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. She has received scholarships such as the DAAD Annual Scholarship and the Skowhegan Residency Program. She has lived and worked in Berlin since 2010.
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 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
