Marie Jamil Schwab (*1996) is a Visual Artist from Germany. She studied the Fine Arts under Prof. Björn Dahlem at Bauhaus University Weimar and Intermedia Art under Prof. Tokihiro Sato at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Currently based in the countryside near Kassel, she works at her studio in a historic forester’s house near Castle Berlepsch, thanks to the generous support of Graf Sittich von Berlepsch.
Recently, her works were presented at Galerie Freitag 18.30 in Aachen.
FROM STUDIES TO PRACTICE
In 2018, I began my studies in Fine Arts under Prof. Björn Dahlem at Bauhaus University Weimar. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we art students were unable to access our studios for almost a year. As a collective of fellow students, we therefore rented the former “Altes Funkhaus” in Weimar at our own expense, in order to create a place for artistic work again. Although the building had no heating, running water, or sanitary facilities, it offered us the opportunity to explore new forms of community and to exchange ideas about artistic and societal processes during the challenging pandemic period. Out of this extraordinary experience, two exhibition projects emerged that addressed art as a basic human need and as a foundation for communal structures.
My mother, Moira Scholz, is a landscape architect. In 2020, she acquired a one-hectare forest plot near Würzburg, which she is developing in cooperation with the Landscape Conservation Association, working towards greater naturalness and biodiversity. Since 2021, my mother’s forest has become both inspiration and creative site for many of my artistic works.
From October 2021 to January 2023, I lived mostly abroad while continuing my art studies online: In winter 2021, I lived in the Artist Residency Hakoniemi - Luova Tila in northern Finland. In the seclusion of this remote place, in freezing temperatures, I created the series Awaken The Fire Inside, inspired by the boundary experience of a hermit-like existence in an unfamiliar land.
In spring 2022, I moved to the community project “Laozi House” in southern Portugal. I spent the second half of 2022 in Barcelona, where I had a studio space in the art center HANGAR.
At the beginning of 2023, I returned to Weimar to complete my art studies, graduating with my diploma exhibition INTERCONNECTEDNESS in September 2023.
My father, the photographer Valentin Schwab, passed away in 2012, leaving behind an extensive body of photographic work and an archive. Since 2017, I have been managing this archive together with my mother. After several years of intensive preparation, the exhibition Valentin Schwab. Eine Retrospektive opened in February 2023 at the Museum im Kulturspeicher in Würzburg.
In August 2023, I participated in the LuppArt Residency on Lupa Island near Budapest.
For the winter semester 2023/24, I moved to Japan to study at GEIDAI Tokyo University of the Arts under Prof. Tokihiro Sato.
At the beginning of 2024, I returned to Germany. In Kassel, I contributed to the organization and curation of the Galeriefest: Cultural Crossroads, a citywide event spanning 13 venues across Kassel, including the Museum für Sepulkralkultur and Grimmwelt.
As part of the “Kasseler Museumsnacht” on September 7, 2024, I opened my first solo exhibition "In My Mother’s Forest".
In September 2025, I was nominated for the Gunter Ullrich Art Prize in Würzburg. In November, my works are presented at Galerie Freitag 18.30 in Aachen.
I create my works in my studio located in a historic forester’s house near Castle Berlepsch, thanks to the generous support of Graf von Berlepsch.