Bettina Marx

Works, Exhibitions, CV, Publications

Bettina Marx
Ruwa
2023
Acrylic on wooden box
180 x 160 cm

Bettina Marx works primarily in drawing and painting. In her work, she explores how interiority and exteriority, nature and architecture, overwhelm one another, forming new connections, and creating permeable relationships. Mimicking this, her constructed images—composed of thin fabrics, paper, and wood—occupy a middle distance between macro- and micro-levels. From far away, her assemblage-like works evoke a sense of large, sweeping movement; up close, they reveal granular layers and ornate motifs underscoring the constructed quality of her images.

This reflects a creative process less oriented towards individual works and more invested in spatially constellating situations that forge novel relationships between painting, surface, and architecture. Working intuitively rather than in accordance with a fixed plan, Marx starts by collecting, drawing, or printing in outdoor conditions and then continues indoors within her studio. Incorporating found elements—bark, sticks, fragments of ceramics—the images that emerge are generally inspired by landscapes and dwellings. These elements may behave unpredictably within a work, shifting, settling into wet paint, or holding and loosening over time, so that the association between whole and parts remains active rather than fixed.

In exhibitions, Marx paints also directly onto walls or engages with the architectural dimensions of a space. A room or gallery is not a neutral container but becomes integral to a work. Rather than hanging pictures or presenting discrete objects, Marx is interested in building up rooms—almost like a space the viewer can walk into. These immersive situations recreate the experience of being inside a storied environment—a mood, a place—nearer to lived experience than a static display. Such spaces draw in and guide the viewer—compelling them to stand more upright or bend down, inviting them to sit, or even momentarily to hide and disappear.

Suspended, almost invisible fabrics extend this spatial logic. In her current work, Marx pushes this further through very delicate fabric pieces where color appears to float across a nearly undetectable surface, while painted threads simultaneously structure, guide, and hold these compositions in place.

Works

Bettina Marx
Lull
2024
Acrylic on paper
250 x 200 cm

Bettina Marx
Fimeh
2024
Acrylic on woodenbox
30 x 20 cm

Bettina Marx
Nachwa (17 a&b)
2023
Ink on paper
each 21 x 29 cm

Exhibitions

klassenverhältnisse – die zweite staffel, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, Germany. Courtesy of Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster and the artist.

A Siren's Lull, 2024, DOD Gallery x POV contemporary, Cologne, Germany. Photos: Niluh Barendt. Courtesy of DOD Gallery, POV contemporary and the artist.

Art au Centre Liege #13, 2023, Liége, Belgium. Photos: Maxime Monet. Courtesy of the artist.

drift, melt and fold, 2022, Fullersta Gård, Stockholm, Sweden. Photos: Paulina Simon. Courtesy of Fullersta Gård and the artist.

siblings, 2021, Kunststation St. Peter, Cologne, Germany. Photos: David Ertl. Courtesy of Kunstation St. Peter and the artist.

Eden, 2020, Galerie Goldstein, Frankfurt, Germany. Photos: Elena Osman. Courtesy of Galerie Goldstein and the artist.

Trommelnde Scherben, 2018, Kunstverein Leverkusen, Germany. Photos: Simon Vogel. Courtesy of Kunstverein Leverkusen and the artist.

Enga mind your head, 2018, Collection Presentation, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany. Photos: David Ertl. Courtesy of Kunstmuseum Bonn and the artist.

Flora war Falk, 2017, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany. Photos: Simon Vogel. Courtesy of Museum Ostwall and the artist.

That‘s how the light gets in, 2016, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, Germany. Photos: Carl Brunn. Courtesy of Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster and the artist.

Brahn, Artothek, 2014, Cologne, Germany. Photos: Simon Vogel. Courtesy of Artothek and the artist.

CV

Bettina Marx
b. 1981 in Bonn, Germany
Lives and works in Bonn, Germany


EDUCATION

2009
Studies with Prof. Peter Doig, Kunstakademie Dusseldorf
Master student Prof. Cornelius Völker

2002-2008
Studies with Prof. Cornelius Völker, Kunstakademie Münster, Germany

SELECTED SCHOLARSHIPS

2018
Individual travel Scholarship of the state NRW for Sweden

2015
Sponsorship Award of the state of NRW

2009
Max Ernst Scholarship Sponsorship

2007
Cité Internationale des arts, Paris, France


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025
-6, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany

2024
A Siren’s Lull, POV contemporary x DOD Gallery, Cologne, Germany

2022
tiefkeller, silver skin, Museum Haus Operdicke, Unna, Germany Wander, drift, melt and fold, Fullersta Gård, Stockholm, Sweden

2021
-5, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany
siblings, Kunststation St. Peter, Cologne, Germany

2020
Eden, Galerie Goldstein, Frankfurt, Germany
-4, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany

2019
A solid into a liquid, Setareh, Dusseldorf, Germany

2018
Trommelnde Scherben, Kunstverein Leverkusen, Germany

2017
Flora war Falk, Museum Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
Moving findings, Kunstverein Neukölln with Kristina Berning, Berlin, Germany
-3, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany

2016
Nirgendsland, Gudberg-Nerger, Hamburg, Germany
-2, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany
Polter, The Same, Berlin, Germany
-1, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany

2015
Leftovers, Kunstverein Emsdetten, Emsdetten, Germany
0, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany

2014
Brahn, Artothek, Cologne, Germany
Im Fenn darling, RWE, Dortmund, Germany

2013
Engawarau, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany

2012
Eine teilweise alte Frau, Center, with Christine Moldrickx, Berlin, Germany

2011
The Zigzagroom, Galerie Pictura, Malmoe, Sweden
with Daniela Neuhaus Les jours de rat, Sammlung Philara, Dusseldorf, Germany


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026
Klassenverhältnisse – die zweite Staffel, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, Germany

2024
BOOBS Now №1, 2024, POV contemporary x Galerie Philipp Anders, Leipzig, Germany
 
2023
Entropic Motion, Galerie Andreae, Bonn, Germany
Art au Centre Liege #13, Liége, Belgium
Jubiläum, Kunstverein Emsdetten, Emsdetten, Germany

2022
Elective Affinities, Setareh, Dusseldorf, Germany

2020
Jubel, jubel es rolle der rubel, tiefkeller, Bonn, Germany
Heaven and Earth in one Stroke, Setareh, Dusseldorf, Germany

2019
Die neue Frau, Haus Opherdicke, Unna, Germany

2018
Enga mind your head, Collection Presentation, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
Ciao, Strizzi, Cologne, Germany

2017
Good News, Kunstverein Ahlen, Germany

2016
Pavillion, Villa Tomana, Firence, Italy
Cornelius Völker & Master student, Lippischen Gesellschaft für Kunst e.V., Lemgo
That‘s how the light gets in, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Aachen, Germany

2015
Paper V, Clement and Schneider, Bonn, Germany

2014
Secret Land, Orangerie, Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany

2013
Art since 2013, Schloss Ringenberg, Hamminkeln, Germany
5 x 3, Kunstraum Dusseldorf, Germany
Here is always somewhere else, Kasteel Oud-rekem, Belgium

2012
Bis hier, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany

2011
Roter Milan, Ausstellungshalle Hawerkamp, Munster, Germany Die Sao Paulo Biennale, MAP, Dusseldorf, Germany

Publications

A–Z. Kunst in NRW 2000–2023.
Sammlung Kunsthaus NRW. pp. 240-1. 

 NAM, 2017
Flora war Falk, Bettina Marx, Museum Ostwall Dortmund, Germany
With texts by Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Bonnet, Regina Selter
Verlag Kettler, Dortmund, 2018
ISBN 978-3-86206-699-5
VG Bild-Kunst Bonn

Trommelnde Scherben, 2018
Kunstverein Leverkusen, Germany 
With a text by Susanne Wedewer-Pampus