Axel Braun studied fine arts at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, and communication design with a focus on photography at Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen.

Since 2006, his work has received recognition and support through grants, residencies and awards, e.g. through the Young Artist Award of the Federal State of North-Rhine Westphalia, the artist-in-residence programmes of Goethe-Institut Bukarest and the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University, as well as grants by Stiftung Kunstfonds, Kunststiftung NRW and the the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media. He received the Allbau Kulturpreis of the city of Essen in 2023 and has been artist-in-residence at the German Center for Venetian Studies in 2024.

His works and projects have been presented in various solo and group exhibitions, e.g. at Hartware MedienKunstVerein at Dortmunder U, Kunstmuseum Bochum, tranzit.sk, Bratislava, Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives, Budapest, Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Galerie Conrads, Düsseldorf, Krakow Photomonth 2018, Kunst Haus Wien – Museum Hundertwasser and Kunstforum Montafon. 

He was an honorary fellow at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam and held a lectureship at Folkwang University of the Arts.

Furthermore, he gave numerous talks and lecture performances, e.g. at the Universities of Cambridge, Vienna, Weimar and Venice, as well as at the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Kunstverein Bochum and Museum für Gegenwartskunst Siegen.

He is the author of artist books like Technology must be cruel in order to assert itself, To the benefit of a society of tomorrow for which we build today, The Best in Demolition All Over the Country and Noxious Interference. Moreover, he contributed essays to publications by Translocal Institute and Haus der Kulturen der Welt.