Bettina Zapp is an artist who is not afraid to take risks – not only in her works, but also in her overall artistic approach. Her most recent creative period, which is summarized under the title “radically beautiful”, is not merely a further development of her previous works. Rather, it represents a turning point, a deliberate provocation to an art world that often dismisses beauty as banal or reactionary. But what Zapp creates is neither superficial nor nostalgic. It is radical, uncompromising and imbued with a profound aesthetic that goes beyond the purely visual. With her new phase of work, she elevates beauty to an act of resistance – an attitude that has become rare in contemporary art.
bettina zapp
radical
beautiful
Zapp not only challenges the viewer’s viewing habits, but also forces them to pause, reflect and engage with the sensual and intellectual dimension of art. All of this must also be seen in the context of her sources of inspiration, Günther Förg and Günter Fruhtrunk, as well as contemporary aesthetic discourses. Radically beautiful: A new aesthetic of Bettina Zapp. Not to dismiss beauty as trivial or passé, but to understand it as a radical and transformative force. Zapp’s art is not only beautiful – it is radical. It challenges the viewer to not only see, but to feel, to think and to surrender to the power of painting. It is an art that remains.
Artist
bettina zapp
- Internationally successful
- Traded internationally
Exhibition
February 2025, WhiteCave – Solo, konsum163 contemporary
Publications
“emotionale praezision.”, 2022.
163 ONE SIX THREE | art in print Verlag
“radikal schön.”, 2025.
163 ONE SIX THREE | art in print Verlag
Bettina Zapp in her studio in Munich. Photo by Bettina Zapp ; © konsum163
SPACE TIME FRAME
MOVEMENT DIMENSION
PRECISION EMOTION
WORLD.
radical
beautiful
In her new phase of work, Bettina Zapp has created a consistently radical surface painting that manages without classical free spaces and yet opens up a complex spatial structure. The strictly arranged geometric forms appear like a stage set that seems to be in constant motion. A fascinating impression is created particularly at the edges of the forms: flashes of color, like pulses of energy, hint at a latent dynamic that appears behind the sharply contoured edges. It is this tension lurking behind the surfaces that makes space and time almost tangible. Zapp’s painting reveals an infinite depth that leads the viewer into a world beyond the visible surface. At the same time, there is an extraordinary lightness in the use of color – in the precise coordination of luminous tones and subtle half-tones – that makes the works appear harmonious in their austerity. What Bettina Zapp has created here is radical beauty: a new, uncompromising aesthetic that not only impresses visually, but also challenges intellectually – a play between order and energy, between structure and the free flow of the imagination.
Bettina Zapp painting in her studio; 2020 Photo by Bettina Zapp ; © konsum163
"The coherent needs the transverse!
bettina zapp
The painter, who is strongly influenced by the sober, constructive and strictly composed art of Günther Förg, attaches great importance to a balanced, clear composition. “The more a painting depends on color for its composition and content, the more emotional the work becomes. The task of creating harmony is a challenge for my skills as a painter. Composition and color must achieve a balance that then allows the picture to come to the fore. You can’t create something like that in a rush. That’s why I often paint just one area of color and then sit in front of the picture, almost meditating, until I have the next step in my mind’s eye. So despite all the emotion, absolute precision is required. And the most important thing of all – the counterpoint: the harmonious needs the transverse.”
Bettina Zapp painting in her studio; 2020 Photo by Bettina Zapp ; © konsum163
"The coherent needs the transverse!
bettina zapp
The painter, who is strongly influenced by the sober, constructive and strictly composed art of Günther Förg, attaches great importance to a balanced, clear composition. “The more a painting depends on color for its composition and content, the more emotional the work becomes. The task of creating harmony is a challenge for my skills as a painter. Composition and color must achieve a balance that then allows the picture to come to the fore. You can’t create something like that in a rush. That’s why I often paint just one area of color and then sit in front of the picture, almost meditating, until I have the next step in my mind’s eye. So despite all the emotion, absolute precision is required. And the most important thing of all – the counterpoint: the harmonious needs the transverse.”
On the way to the studio during her residency in Mexico; 2022. Photo by Alma Göring ; © konsum163
Mixing paint with pigments – not just a craft, but an important part of the painting process ; 2022. Photo by Alma Göring ; © konsum163
residence mexico
2022
Paraiso, 110 x 130 cm, acrylic and pigment on canvas, 2022. © konsum163
"It is a triad that leads to emotional precision. Color, form and materiality must be in harmony with each other.
bettina zapp
Paraiso (detail), © konsum163
emotional precision
© konsum163
in the studio
exhibitions and bio
2025
RADIKAL SCHÖN, solo show, konsum163, Munich, Germany
WILDE MISCHUNG 5 / group exhibition
Pasinger Fabrik; Munich
Large art exhibition AK68 | 025 / Group exhibition
Wasserburg am Inn
Empower Her Art Forum / Group exhibition
The Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo
art Karlsruhe 2025, Group-exhibition with konsum163 – contemporary
Karlsruhe, Germany
INSTEAD OF SNOW (group exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
2024
ONE (group exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
NEW? YES! (group exhibition)
Gallery Bludin Berisha, Hamburg
NEUNZWO4 (group exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
Large art exhibition AK68 024 (group exhibition)
Town Hall and Ganserhaus, Wasserburg am Inn
2023
Empower Her ART Festival/ARTODAY
National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, NMEC, Cairo
Wild Mixture 1 (group exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
Alles Melone (group exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
L’Arte Tedesca è Bionda? (group exhibition)
Tibaldi Arte Contemporanea Gallery, Rome
Dialogues in the Moonlight (solo exhibition)
konsum163 – contemporary art gallery, Munich
2022
Residence Oaxaca
Mexico
Üblackerhäusl Gallery
Munich
Scheytt Gallery
Munich
2021
against gray
The Drostei, Hamburg/Pinneberg
If I had a boat
Galerie Scheytt, Munich
2020
Trilogy
Atelier Köser, Ellerbek, Hamburg
about color
Bedington Fine Art Gallery, Bargemon, France
2019
ARTMUC Art Fair Munich
Coop with Peter Euser
ARTMUC Art Fair Munich
local heroes, with Peter Euser
Colored Canvas
Galerie bildlich, Starnberg
Silent Night
Galerie Scheytt, Munich
Finally
Galerie bildlich, Starnberg
2018
Art meets Fashion
Birgit Engel, Munich
coop interventions
Peter Euser, werklicht contemporary Munich
Culture in the neighborhood
Jugendkirche München
Color painting
Gallery Scheytt, Munich
2017
South meets North
Drostei Pinneberg, Hamburg
Painting
Galerie bildlich, Starnberg
2016
Strips’n Stripes
Peter Euser, werklicht contemporary, Munich
Care
Munich Youth Church
colorpainting
Galerie bildlich, Starnberg
2015
Show your colors
Galerie bildlich, Starnberg
2014
Color Boxes
Kultursaal Selma, Starnberg
2013
Golden Colors
Jutta Nestler, Munich
Together
Gallery pictorial, Krailling
2010
Color play
Jutta Nestler, Munich
Colorscapes
Galerie bildlich, Krailling
2009
Aufbruch
Galerie bildlich, Krailling
Born in Göppingen, she studied interior design at Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences from 1980 to 1985 and began studying painting at the Academy of Art in Bad Reichenhall in 2007 during her professional career in Munich. Inspired by Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, her artistic path was mapped out. She attended seminars and guest semesters with Günther Förg, who also taught at the Academy of Arts in Munich and was one of her role models. She had her first exhibition in 2008 and has since been represented in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Germany. In 2019, she made the leap to France with an exhibition at the Beddington Fine Art gallery in Bargemon.
Bettina Zapp now lives and works in her studio in Krailling near Munich and is internationally renowned.
