Lena Lapschina was born in Kurgan, Siberia, now lives and works in Vienna and Lower Austria.She is also co-founder of State of the Art magazine and curator for M21 (Museum Of The Twenty-First Century) in Austria.
Since graduating from State Stroganow University of Fine and Applied Arts, Moscow, her work has been exhibited widely around the world, from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Russia to New York, Vietnam and Syria.
In 2011, Lapschina was awarded an Austrian State Grant for Video and Media Art and within the last decade alone has been granted prestigious residencies in Reykjavik, Salzburg, Saigon, Heerlen, California, St. Christoph and most recently Teheran.
In 2015, she participated in the 3rd Mardin Biennial in Turkey, as well as exhibiting at KunsthalleKleinbasel (Switzerland) and Ausstellungsbrücke, St. Pölten (Austria).
Lapschina's work crosses various disciplines, including video, sculpture and installation, and demonstrates a strong proclivity for public / semi-public locations and their mutual influence on the private areas.
Her recent exhibition, "Yes/No," presented an installation for Open Source Gallery in New York, and was
a key demonstration of the artist's ongoing exploration not only of notions of choice, conviction and belief, but also what opportunities may be missed in that necessary choice. "Yes/No" was a thoughtful, spatial installation of two light objects produced from fluorescent tubes, illuminated on opposite walls of a dark room, revealing two clear choices – "Yes" and "No" – with little between but limbo.
As part of the Mdina Cathedral Biennale, Lapschina will create new public installation work on site, as a direct response to the characteristics, history, community and architecture of the city.
"Her drawings have no beginning and no end; no chronology. They are like pop-ups on the internet, that pop up at the instant that someone looks at a site. There must be a spark; a short moment of insight. It makes one think of an epiphany, a recurring theme in the writing of James Joyce. The meaning of epiphany is a moment, a split second of clarity, that makes everything able to be understood. This is what Lena Lapschina wants us to see here..." Wido Smeets (Zuidelucht, Maastricht)
Lapschina's project is sponsored by Bundeskanzlermat Osterreich
