Jakob Lena Knebl

Jakob Lena Knebl (b.1970, Baden, Austria), studied Fashion under Raf Simons at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Textual Sculpture under Heimo Zobernig at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, graduating in 2006. Playing with the languages of fashion and art history, notions of identity and desire, Jakob Lena Knebl uses spatial and photographic intervention (juxtaposition and mise-en-scène) to (de-/re-)construct ideas of identity as well as ones relation to objects and spaces of cultural memory.

Alongside her solo practice Jakob Lena Knebl works with Ashley Hans Scheirl on a range of projects. Often extra-bodily, these collaborative personifications not only question a ‘normative gaze’ but normativity as a mode of production, dissemination, and reception.

Select exhibitions include: SoftMachine (with Ashley Hans Scheirl),  Opernring 17, Vienna (2022); Invitation of the Soft Machine and Her Angry Body Parts (with Ashley Hans Scheirl), Austrian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, Giardini, Venice, Italy (2022); Avant-Garde and the Contemporary. The Belvedere Collection from Lassnig to Knebl, The Belvedere Collection, Austria (2022); Marcher sur l’eau, Musée d’art et d’histoire Genève (2021); Sesonal Greetings, KUB, Bregenz (2020/21); Ruth Anne, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna (2020); Frau 49 Jahre alt, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz (2020); Wir sind Henkel, Tanzquartier Wien, Vienna, with Markus Pires Mata (2020); Und Schwester Makart geht auf Wanderschaft, Künstlerhaus Wien, Vienna (2019); I am he as you are he as you are me. And we are all together, Belmacz, London (2019); Come together, right now. Over me, Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris (2019); 55 Dates. Highlights from the mumok Collection, mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2019); Fashion Drive. Extreme Clothing in the Visual Arts, Kunsthaus Zürich (2018); Oh… Jakob Lena Knebl and the mumok Collection, mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2017); Mapping the Body, Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck (2016); The Language of Things – Material Hi/Stories from the Collection, 21er Haus, Vienna (2016); Gender jako dekomerowy performance, Galeria PF, Poznan (2015); Im Frühling, Darling, Kunstverein Hamburg (2014); Look at me, Centre of Contemporary Art, Torun (2014); Lebe den Tag, Kunst am Bau, Landespflegeheim, Baden (2014); Schwule Sau, KÖR, Vienna (2013); An Eye on the Disposition of a Cloud, Salzburger Kunstverein (2013); Art from Vienna, CI Contemporary Istanbul (2013); Faceless, Freiraum, Vienna (2013); Reflecting Fashion. Art and Fashion Since Modernism, mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna (2012); Set Staged Envisioned, 308at156 Project Artspace, New York (2012); Vanitas, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2012); Sense and Sensibility, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2011); Transgression, Beers. Lambert Contemporary, London (2011); Becoming, H13 2010, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna (2010); OPEN UP Kommunikation, Tanzquartier Wien, Vienna (2009); Mode française, in cooperation with Chris Haring, Les Subsistances, Lyon (2009).

Alongside these, Jakob Lena Knebl has curated a number of exhibitions; in 2019 she was named one of the most influential curators of the decade by Artnet.

Jakob Lena Knebl has participated in a number of biennials, including: the 15th Biennale de Lyon and the 51st festival Steirischer herbst Graz. In 2022, Jakob and Ashley represented Austria at the 59th Venice Biennale. Jakob Lena Knebl was awarded the Austrian Federal Chancellery’s Outstanding Artist Award in the Fine Art in both 2017 and 2015.

Jakob Lena Knebl lives and works in Vienna, where she is a Professor of Transmedial Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.