Sabrina Jung is a visual artist working with photography and collage through both digital and analogue processes. Her practice operates at the intersection of image production, archival material and artistic research. She investigates how photographic images construct identity and shape perceptions of gender, social roles and subjectivity.
A central aspect of her work is the engagement with historical photographic archives. Many of her series draw on black-and-white portraits from professional studio photography of the twentieth century. Through digital manipulation and manual collage techniques, she reconfigures these historical photographs into fictional portraits. By recontextualising existing images, she exposes the constructed nature of photographic representation and explores how images participate in shaping cultural narratives and collective memory.
Jungs work critically examines the photographic gaze and the power relations embedded in processes of image production and reception. Hand-cut, mounted masks frequently appear in her portraits, covering or replacing the original faces. These interventions disrupt the conventional legibility of the photographic portrait and introduce a moment of visual instability. The resulting figures oscillate between presence and absence, familiarity and estrangement.
Across different bodies of work—including portraits as well as photographs of natural environments — Sabrina Jung is interested in transitional states and moments of in-betweenness. By destabilising familiar visual codes, her images invite viewers to reconsider their expectations of representation and reflect on their own habits of seeing and judging. In this way, her practice approaches photography not as a representational medium but as a site where questions of identity, perception and power are continuously negotiated.
Alongside her studio practice, Sabrina Jung is engaged in curatorial and collaborative cultural work. She initiated exhibitions with Weisser Salon and co-founded the Kunstverein Bahnitz. She has developed projects in the field of cultural education in Eastern Germany, addressing themes of memory, identity and social transformation. Projects that connect contemporary art with questions of regional and post-socialist identity.

Sabrina Jung
*1978 Neuss, Germany
lives and works in Berlin

2001 – 2007
Diploma with distinction in Photography
Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen
2005
Erasmus Stipend, Zurich University of the Arts, CH
1999 – 2001
education as media designer for digital and print media

Teaching and initiatives
2025
Lecturer, Technical University of Dortmund
Collage in contemporary photography
2019 – 2022
Board Member of Wredow-Foundation, Brandenburg a. d. Havel
2017
Co-Founder of Kunstverein Bahnitz e.V.
2006 – 2010
Co-Initiator of Weisser Salon – a curatorial project

PROJECTS
2025
Project with Kunstverein Bahnitz e.V.
“Childhood & Youth in Bahnitz"
on the occasion of the 800th anniversary of Bahnitz
Biography work, workshops, dialogue formats, publication, exhibition presentation
Project Grant by Kulturelle Bildung Brandenburg

2019
Project with Kunstverein Bahnitz e.V.,
“East German women – the fall of the Berlin Wall”
Biographical portraits of Monika, Jutta and Karin
Interviews by Sabrina Jung & Claudia König
phtographs by Sabrina Jung
Biography work, workshops, dialogue formats, publication, exhibition presentation
Project Grant by Kulturelle Bildung Brandenburg

2018
Project with Kunstverein Bahnitz e.V.
"Landscape in Transition"
Biographical Portraits of Mirko & Daniel: Places of Childhood – Then and Now
Interviews & Photographs by Sabrina Jung
Biographical work, dialogue formats, publication, exhibition presentation
Project Grant by Kulturelle Bildung Brandenburg

2004 – 2007
Otzenrath – a village disappears, photographic documentation of the slow disappearance
of a village in North Rhine-Westphalia due to lignite mining in the Garzweiler II open-cast mine

AWARDS, Grants & Nominations Selection
Artist in Residence, Beast, Bornholm, 2026
Nomination "Villa Aurora Fellowship", Los Angeles, 2024
Nomination "20th Brandenburg Art Prize", 2023
Project Grant, Neustart Kultur, Kunstfonds Bonn, 2022
Project Grant, Neustart Kultur, VG Bild-Kunst, 2021
Project Grant, Brandenburg Ministry for Science, Research and Culture, 2021
Working grant, Brandenburg Ministry for Science, Research and Culture, 2020
Nomination "Stiftungspreis Fotokunst", Alison & Peter Klein Foundation, 2020
Project Grant, Plattform Kulturelle Bildung & Demokratie leben!, 2019
Nomination "13th Brandenburg Art Prize", 2018
Nomination "6d International Marianne Brandt Prize", 2016


Exhibitions Selection
2026 "Familiy Crincle", Lobe Block, Berlin
"Mind Shapes", Kommunale Galerie Alte Feuerwache, Berlin
2024 "Mother", Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
"Aufbruch / Umbruch", Produzentengalerie M, Potsdam
"Wall of BÄM!", Art Cologne, And she was like: BÄM!
"Schöne Aussichten", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2023 (solo) "Art x Nature", Wintergarten Floristik x Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
"Who´s afraid of stardust? – Positionen queerer Gegenwartskunst", Kunsthaus Nürnberg
(two person show) "Simple Present", MWFK, Potsdam
"Flüchtigkeit des Augenblicks", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
"20. Brandenburgischer Kunstpreis", Schloß Neuhardenberg
2022 "Idylle", Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
"Art Düsseldorf", Galerie Gisela Clement, Düsseldorf
2021 (solo) "Rethinking Now", Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
"Sehnsucht & Ahnung", Cooperation with Ensemble Ruhr, Maschinenhalle Essen
"Art Cologne", Galerie Gisela Clement
"Landeinwärts: Einblick – Ausblick", Landtag Brandenburg, Potsdam
"Die Freiheit, frei zu sein", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2020 "faces-traces", Galerie Gisela Clement, Bonn
"Stiftungspreis Fotokunst I Gegenwart Erinnerung", KUNSTWERK, Eberdingen-Nussdorf
"Heile Welt", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
"Summer Show", Beast, Bornholm, DK
2019 "Gezielte Setzungen. Übermalte Fotografie in der zeitgenössischen Kunst", Sprengel Museum,
"Neuss Foto", Städtische Galerie, Neuss
"Über Grenzen", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2018 "The female Gaze II", Studiogalerie Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
"The female Gaze I", Kunsthaus Erfurt
"Sehnsucht nach Landschaft", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2016 "Kopf und Kragen", Galerie der Stadt Backnang
"Mit anderen Augen – Das Portrait in der zeigenössischen Fotografie", Kunsthaus Nürnberg
"l‘Autre visage", Centre photographique Pôle Image, Rouen, F
"Quovadis", Kunst & Denker, Düsseldorf
"Geschenkt. Gekauft. Gefunden.", Münchner Stadtmuseum
"Mit anderen Augen – Das Portrait in der zeigenössischen Fotografie", Kunstmuseum Bonn
"Materialeffekte", Internationaler Marianne Brandt Preis, Industriemuseum Chemnitz
"Schatten des Krieges", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2015 "Baywatch", Galerie Hartwich, Sellin
"Landschaf(f)tkunst V", Neuwerder
"Demokratie – Politische Landschaften", Kunsthalle Bahnitz
2013 "Field Work – German Art Photograph"y, Det ny Kastet, Thisted, DK
2012 (Solo) "Beutetiere", Galerie Römerapotheke, Zürich, CH
"Eros & Thanatos - Sammlung Rusche", Spinnerei, Leipzig
"mock room", brutto gusto, Berlin
"Cliffhanger", Minken & Palme, Berlin
2011 "Rundblick 2011 – Schöne Wahrnehmung", Temporary Gallery, Cologne
"Nullportrait", Galerie Zink, Berlin
(two person show) "Snake Handling", Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin
"Het is aan", Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, NL
"Les questions sont plus denses que les réponses", general Public, Berlin
"Taste my photons", Noorderlicht Gallery, Groningen, NL
"Great Opening", Kreuzberg Pavillion, Berlin
2010 (solo)" Inter Zink #5", Galerie Zink, München
"Behind the billboard", MK Galerie, Berlin
"Der Himmel leuchtet", Galerie Rupert Pfab, Düsseldorf
"Genre", Kunstraum t27, Berlin
"Sugary photographs with tricks, poses and effects", Depot Dam, Antwerpen, BE
"Girl Overkill", Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
"Madonna Psycho Slut", Grimmuseum, Berlin
"NowHere", Centrum for Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam, NL
"One world is not enough", Galerie Merkle, Stuttgart
2009 "Spuren", Kunstraum t27, Berlin
"middle of nowhere", LUMP Gallery, Raleigh, USA
"Immodest proposals", Weisser Salon x Version Fest, Eastern Expansion, Chicago, USA
"Noise", Weisser Salon x Raum für Kunst & Musik, Köln
"Viel", Galerie Mikro, Düsseldorf
2008 (solo) "Displays Unplugged", Galerie Mikro, Düsseldorf
"Newcomer Photo España", Complejo El Aguila, Madrid
"Mind the Gap", Weisser Salon x Version Fest, Country Club, Chicago, USA
2007 (solo) "Bühnen Kulissen Modelle", Kunsthaus Essen
"Diplome", Forum Kunst & Architektur, Essen
2006 "Sehwege", Oldenburger Kunstverein
"Public Folder #2", Cuisine Digitale, Museumsquartier, Wien
"Public Folder #2", Raum für Kunst und Musik, Köln
"Public Folder #1", Galerie Mikro, Düsseldorf
2005 (two person show) "Otzenrath", Städtische Galerie, Neuss
"Privatkontakte", Städt. Galerie Villingen-Schwenningen
2004 "500m", Forum Kunst & Architektur, Essen


Publications Selection
Sabrina Jung, Good Mothers I Queers, 2024
Who´s afraid of stardust? Positionen queerer Gegenwartskunst
Kunsthalle Nürnberg + Kunsthaus Nürnberg, Verlag für moderne Kunst, 2023, ISBN 978-3-99153-050-3
Stiftungspreis Fotokunst
Hrsg. KUNSTWERK Stiftung Alison & Peter Klein, 2020
Gezielte Setzungen. Übermalte Fotografie in der zeitgenössischen Kunst
Verlag Sprengel Museum Hannover, 2019, ISBN 978-3-89169-245-5
Ostfrauen – Wendezeit
Hrsg. Sabrina Jung & Claudia König, Kunstverein Bahnitz e.V., 2019
Mit anderen Augen – Das Porträt in der zeitgenössischen Fotografie
Kunstmuseum Bonn, 2016, Snoeck Verlag, ISBN 978-3864421587
Public/Private/Portrait
mossless 4, Hrsg. Romke Hoogwaerts & Charlotte Cotton, 2016
Rising, 100 young artists to keep an eye on
daab Verlag, 2011