Ashmolean NOW Bettina von Zwehl Catalogue

This striking publication features new photographs by London-based artist Bettina von Zwehl (b.1971 in Munich) and accompanies the third exhibition of the Ashmolean NOW series that will be held at the Ashmolean Museum between 18 Oct 2024 – 11 May 2025.

Interested in photography from a young age, von Zwehl worked as a photographer’s assistant in Rome before moving to London to study for an MA in Fine Art Photography at the Royal College of Art. Exploring human and interspecies relationships, her work draws on different traditions of art history and visual culture, while experimenting with the photographic medium, playing with and continuously expanding photographic boundaries. She has completed high profile residencies and has had solo exhibitions at museums around the world, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) and Freud Museum in London, the Holburne Museum in Bath, and the New-York Historical Society Museum. 

During a residency in Oxford, von Zwehl researched the Ashmolean’s founding collections and the many narratives embedded within the historical objects. Over the course of a year, she examined objects at the Ashmolean and Oxford University Museum of Natural History - talking to various curators about their collections. This served as inspiration for a unique and contemporary Wunderkammer book and exhibition, oscillating seamlessly between abstracted still life and landscape, animals and hybrid creatures, monumental and miniature elements, as well as non-art objects. The artist’s aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and unique practices. 

Lena Fritsch is the Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Ashmolean, responsible for exhibitions, displays and acquisitions of international art. She teaches at the University of Oxford, V&A and SOAS. Previously, she was a curator at Tate Modern, London and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. Recent publications include Ashmolean NOW: Pio Abad (2024) and Ashmolean NOW: Flora Yukhnovich x Daniel Crews-Chubb (2023)