Born as Martina Egger in Baden bei Wien in 1970, Jakob Lena Knebl worked as a certified elderly care nurse for ten years before enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where she studied textual sculpture with Heimo Zobernig and fashion with Raf Simons respectively.  Since then, she has had numerous solo exhibitions, for instance at the mumok in Vienna (2017) or the Lentos Art Museum in Linz (2020) and has contributed to several international exhibitions and public art projects.  In line with her trademark play on identity and gender, she replaced her given name with the first names of her grandparents several years ago and adopted the surname “Knebl". She has received several prizes, among them the Outstanding Artist Award for Fine Art of the Austrian Federal Chancellery in 2017. Since 2018, Jakob Lena Knebl has also been active as part of an artist duo together with her partner Ashley Hans Scheirl. Their work was shown at the Lyon Biennale in 2019 and at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2020. In 2019, they covered up the Rathausturm in Vienna as part of an art installation. In 2022, Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl are representing Austria at the 59th Venice Biennale. Since 2021, Jakob Lena Knebl is holding the professorship for transmedia art at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where she lives and works.