bio

Born in Hamburg. Monika Zabel is a fashion designer and artist, curator, speaker and advocate for conscious and sustainable design practices. She lives and works in Hamburg and New York City and is exploring the world. She is driven by curiosity and gets inspired by changing environments, places and spaces, and translates this energy into her designs. She graduated at Fashion Institute of Technology New York (FITNY) in sustainable design (with focus on fashion design), and at Technical University Berlin in environmental sciences and economics (PhD). She is alumna of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and Salzburg Global Forum.

exhibitions/projects (please see also www.urbanpilgrims.eu)

2020 6th International Fashion Art Biennale, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul, Korea. October/November 2020 (invited artist).  
2020 Ode to the Ocean, MODEM Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Debrechen, Hungary (postponed from April 2020 to September 2020). 
2019 Hangeul written in Fashion, Exhibition at National Hangeul Museum, Seoul, Korea: Textile Sculpture ‘The Kiss’.
2019 Connecting Borders: Hangeul x Fashion Art. Exhibition at Museum of Fashion, Palazzo Morando, Milan, Italy.
2019 VENICE DESIGN. Collateral Exhibition to Biennale di Venezia. Palazzo Michiel, Textile Installation Ode to the Ocean - Water. Fishes. Fashion. Venice , 11 May to 24 November. European Culture Center (ECC) – Italy.
2019 Urban Pilgrims – Positions in Advanced Fashion. Fashion and Photography. Solo Exhibition, Art bookstore Sautter + Lackmann, Hamburg.
2018 Fashion art exhibition at T Fashion Space, Taipei, Taiwan
2018 5th International Fashion Art Biennale, in Seoul, Korea, on invitation by Korea Fashion and Culture Association (KFCA), work inspired by Bauhaus, Werk-Kunst.Kunst-Werk. 
2018 Textile Installation: Surfaces – Bodies, Spaces, Places. Collective Exhibition, It’s liquid, Palazzo Ca’ Zanardi, Venice
2017 Urban Pilgrims – Positions in Advanced Fashion, Solo exhibition at Exhibition Hall Cesis, Latvia.
2016 Art of Fashion - Works from New York, Prague and Hong Kong. Artist and Curator, Special Exhibition Project Art of Fashion, Poolhaus-Blankenese Art Space (a former swimming pool house reconverted to a private art space); supported by Poolhaus-Blankenese Foundation, Hamburg.
2015 Runway to Cuba, Show and exhibition of sustainably produced clothing collections by four NY/NJ based fashion designers, Gallery One, Barat Foundation, Newark, USA.

residencies

2017 Two months residency of RUCKA Art Foundation in Cesis, Latvia.
2016 One month residency at Poolhaus-Blankenese Foundation in Hamburg to conceive and curate the exhibition Art of Fashion – Works from New York, Prague and Hong Kong. 
2015 Invited Artist by the Barat Foundation, Newark, USA, as faculty to their summer school for youth studying arts in the US. In Provence, France.

awards

2020 Invited Fashion Artist for International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul, Korea, at DDP.
2018 Nominated for International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul, Korea. One of 30 international and 70 national fashion art positions.
2017 RUCKA Art Foundation Award (first time since existence of the award a fashion designer was granted).
2016 Special Project at Poolhaus-Blankenese Foundation. Art of Fashion. International Positions in Sustainable Fashion.