Marita Kelbl focuses her artistic practice on crafting poetic and playful illustrations for children’s books, comics, and self-published works. Characterized by a delicate hand, sensitive coloring, and an emphasis on narrative atmosphere and fine detail, she frequently collaborates with cultural organizations and publishing houses on visual concepts, earning numerous domestic and international competition nominations. Beyond her solo studio work, she leads creative workshops for children and adults, teaches outside the classroom, and actively participates in queer community initiatives. For the festival, she presents her Risograph-printed zine “Wannabe Honest Trans Stories”, a deeply personal project exploring anxiety, breakups, and physical transition that originated as individual chapters on Instagram. This exhibition marks the premiere of Volume 2 of the zine alongside roughly thirty original, diary-like sketches colored with highlighters from Volume 1. To complete the installation, she arranges these small-scale, A5 works in a precise grid alongside fifteen to twenty highlighter drawings from her “Intimacy” series—which reflects on the intimacy she has experienced, craved, or mourned as a trans woman—and anchors the entire display with a single large-format figurative painting or a series of ceramic sculptures.
Exhibits within: Showcase – Comics
Marita Kelbl
