Zoé Byland attended the F+F School of Art and Design in Zurich (Switzerland) and studied Contextual Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, receiving her master’s degree in 2008. She also studied Art History at the University of Vienna (Austria) where she lived for several years, painting and teaching at an art school.
Zoé now lives and works with her family in Bern/Switzerland.

In terms of style and content, her paintings are based on elements of vintage photography, film noir, graphic novels, super heroes, tattoos and classical genres of art history. In combination of the traditional and the contemporary, the classical and the subcultural.
Zoe uses subjects from turn-of-the-century portrait photography because they are a timeless style of representation.
We are always in the presence of the past but the past only exists in a selective, staged form, altered by our memory. She strives to create moments in her paintings that elude time and space, in which history and the present day are blended together. Disguises are another central theme in her paintings. The characters never fully reveal their identity; they retain a degree of secrecy; they protect themselves and are simultaneously visible and vulnerable. The viewer's imagination has enough room to make up their own narrative ideas. An image can be read in a variety of ways, and Zoe does not want to limit this spectrum of interpretation by applying specific meaning to her works. Just like a good story, a good painting needs an atmosphere that draws you in and defines the genre in which the narrative is taking place.


SELECTED SHOWS

2021
Dreambags and Jaguar Shoes, Kirk Gallery, Denmark

2020
Mini solo exhibition
Curated by Caro Buermann, three artist exhibit at Corey Helford gallery, LA< Zoé Byland
Solo show at Koch x Bos gallery Amsterdam

2019
Captured dreams
Solo show at haven gallery, New York
Come undone
Curated by Kylie Dexter, group show at Beinart gallery, Melbourne /AU
6th Annual Art Collectors Starter Kit show
Curated by Caro Buermann, group show at Corey Helford gallery, LA
District 13
International art fair with Haven gallery, Paris
Hello Kitty’s official 45th Anniversary Group Show
By Sanrio, curated by Caro Buermann, group show at Corey Helford gallery, LA
Lucky 13 Anniversary
Curated by Caro Buermann, group show at Corey Helford gallery, LA
Season’s start
Group show at Koch x Bos gallery Amsterdam
Kunst Rai
International Art fair with Koch x Bos gallery Amsterdam

2018
Zoé Byland/ Walter Wetter
Show at Trace gallery, Zurich
In the presence of the past
Solo show at Corey Helford gallery, Los Angeles

2017
Parallel
Solo show at KochXBos gallery, Amsterdam
Pages from a minds travellers diaries
Dorothy circus gallery 10th anniversary group show, Rome
Beneath the New waves group show
Corey Helford gallery, Los Angeles

2016
Napoleon Complexity
AFA NYC, New York
La Lune
Haven gallery, New York
Lost faces
Trace gallery, Zurich

2015
Monochrom
Solo show at KochXBos gallery Amsterdam
Head in the clouds
Solo show at Dorothy circus gallery, Rome
Between masks and traces
Galerie Bäckerstrasse, Berlin
Art Monaco 15
Dorothy circus gallery
Haven gallery, Inaugural Group show
Haven gallery, New York
Zoé Byland with paintings soundtrack by D&A Brun del Re & Le diamantaire
Show at Trace gallery, Zurich

2014
Women, Street, Art &Studio
Inoperable gallery, Vienna
Zoé Byland
Solo show at Lay Low gallery, Palma
Scope, art Basel
Inoperable gallery
Kunst Rai
KochXBos gallery, Amsterdam

2013
Winter group show
KochXBos gallery, Amsterdam
Lacrima Aquarium
Dorothy circus gallery, Rome

2012
Tiny trifecta 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
Cotton Candy machine, Brooklyn/ New York, curated by Tara Mc Pherson

2011
Kardinal-König-Kunstpreis 2011
Kunstraum St.Virgil, Salzburg
Stroke urban art fair 2010, 2011
Inoperable gallery


2010
Three
Pure evil gallery & Lebenson gallery, London
ARCO Madrid 2010, 2009
Galerie Projektraum Viktor Bucher

2009
Identity/self II
Praxis art gallery, New York
Bäckerstrasse 4
Galerie Bäckerstrasse 4, Wien

2008
Art Cologne 2008
Galerie Projektraum Viktor Bucher
Vienna Fair 2008, 2007
Galerie Projektraum Viktor Bucher, Charim Galerie
Candy Cult
Breadbox Gallery, Perth/Australia

2007
Open art München
Galerie Projektraum Viktor Bucher

2006
Walking, doupting, rolling shining and musing
Academy of fine arts Vienna, curated by Adam Budak