Rolly-Polly

Lena Applebaum is a Latvian-born British artist-painter based in London, UK. Her artwork features expressive, innocent portraits of children in imaginary life situations and actions, with a focus on her personal worries related to lost identity, life experiences, and love for Cosmos. Her main character, the Spacebaby, represents adventure, youth, and mystery, similar to a little superhero.
Lena’s background in architecture and fine art, combined with her Eastern European roots, inspire her ideas and approach to working on a larger scale. She finds inspiration in exploring alternative sites, such as post-Utopian places across Europe, abandoned buildings and playgrounds, and vintage toys.
Lena communicates her vision through oil paints on canvas in a semi-traditional way, merging contemporary pop with neo-baroque styles. Her large-scale paintings showcase the Spacebaby in relation to human scale, creating a contrast between the figurative character and the abstract backdrop.
Lena Applebaum’s work has been exhibited in renowned public galleries and private collections in the UK, Europe, Japan, Switzerland, and the USA.