Frauke Zabel is an artist and art educator. Trained as a gold and silversmith, she studied jewelry and hollowware, fine arts/sculpture, and art education at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle (Saale), the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, and the University of São Paulo.
Her practice combines artistic research with media transfer processes and questions of mediation. In an often collaborative approach, her media-open working method is aligned with the occasion of becoming public. The Research-based practice addresses its own perspective and the researched content within a social, political, and ecological reality. Many of her projects arise from archived and non-archived materials or from archives themselves and focus on processes of transfer and translation across languages, media, times, and places, questioning hegemonic readings of history.
education
2017 - 2018 M.A. – Kunst und Vermittlung - Praxis ästhetischer Theorie, AdBK Munich
2017 Exchange student at the USP - ECA, São Paulo, Brazil
2011 - 2018 studying Fine Arts, AdBK Munich; Diploma
2013 - 2016 studying art education, AdBK Munich
2008 - 2011 studying Fine Arts / Jewellery at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle
2004 - 2008 apprenticeship as gold- and silversmith, Berufsfachschule für Glas- und Schmuck Neugablonz-Kaufbeuren
teaching
since 2026 Professor at the University of Arts Linz
2024/25 Guest professor, HGB / Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
2024 Workshop at the Martius Chair for Humanities and Sustainability of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the University of São Paulo
2022/23 Teaching assistant Klasse Tanja Widmann | New Genres | Kunstpädagogik; Akademie der Bildenden Künste München
2020 Teaching assignment Merz Akademie Stuttgart [Historische Reiseberichte – Eine postkoloniale und feministische Betrachtung]
2019/20 Guest lecturer AdBK Nürnberg [Performativität und öffentlicher Raum]
2018/19 Teaching assignment TU Munich – Gender Studies in Architecture [Performativität – Das Verhältnis von öffentlichem zu geschütztem Raum]
2018 Teaching assignment AdBK Munich – Lehrstuhl für Philosophie | Ästhetische Theorie [Tropicália – Perspektivwechsel 68]
fellowships / awards / funding
2025 IFA Artists' Contacts: Atlas Brasiliensis
2025 The Visual Arts Project Fund – Goethe Institut: Atlas Brasiliensis
2022 Stiftung Kunstfonds – Neustart Kultur
2022 Project grant Steiner-Stiftung München
2021 INITIAL, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
2021 Arbeits- und Fortbildungsstipendien für Freie Theaterschaffende 2021, Munich
2020 Wiederaufnahmeförderung: Widerstand – Aneignung, Übersetzung und Transfer. Ein Realitätstheater. – project funding of the city Munich
2019/20 Stipendium / Förderung der Chancengleichheit für Frauen in Forschung und Lehre / AdBK Nürnberg
2018/19 DAAD – Postgraduate Fellowship for Brazil
2018 Förderpreis für junge Kunst / Advancement award for young art - Kunstclub13
2018 Project grant Steiner-Stiftung München
2018 Debütant:innenförderung / catalogue funding, Bavarian State / LFA Förderbank
2018 Debütförderung 2018 / Debute Grant – project funding of the city Munich
2017 six-month Research Scholarship for São Paulo, AdBK Munich
2017 Meisterschülerin of Prof. Stephan Huber, AdBK Munich
2016 Graduation Price for outstanding artistic achievement; Foundation Kunstakademie Munich
2015 Leonhard und Ida Wolf-Gedächtnispreis of the city Munich; XPatch Collective (Johanna Klingler, Liane Klingler, Judith Neunhäuserer, Kristina Schmidt, Frauke Zabel)
2012 Bavarian State Prize 2012, Mention
residencies
2023 Deutsches Studienzentrum in Venedig
2021/22 Cité internationale des arts, Paris / France
2020 Residency Bibliothek Andreas Züst, Switzerland
2020 Goethe Institut Marseille Residency with FLORIDA Lothringer 13: Maria VMier, Beowulf Tomek / France
2019 Kunstraum München, Residency, August 2019
2019 esponja Residency, Februar 2019, São Paulo, Brazil
2017 three-month Residency at the Pivô, São Paulo, Brazil
exhibitions
Participation in exhibitions and performances as well as performances in collective contexts took place for example at
MUSA – Museu da Amazônia / Manaus, Teatro de Arena / São Paulo, Pivô / São Paulo, esponja / São Paulo (BR), Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Kunsthaus Bregenz – KUB Arena (AT), Cité internationale des arts Paris (FR), Deutsches Studienzentrum Venedig (IT), Kunstverein München, Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Lothringer Halle München, PAM – Public Art Munich, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, SPIELART München, KV Leipzig, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Kunstraum München, Kunstverein Bamberg, and in the global dis:connect program at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte Munich.
collective contexts
since 2013 Kunstpavillon e.V. im Alten Botanischen Garten München
2018-2020 FLORIDA Lothringer 13