Lena Revenko
''it's a safe place'' 2025

''it's a safe place'' 2025

Acrylic on framed book papers   

18/12 cm (framed 42/32 cm)

Signed with the artist's stamp

I was born in Minsk, Belarus. In my childhood I spent a lot of time alone, listening to fairy-tales on vynil records, drawing and waiting for my mom to come back home. When I was 14 we moved to Israel. It was suddenly hot, loud, people looked and talk diefferent. I started to go to art school, and all the system was not the same - not soviet academic as I used to, but abstract and conceptual. It was interesting and frustrating. Later I finished art academy Bezalel in Jerusalem.

KooKoo is honored to introduce you to Lena Revenko (1976) Lena Revenko, artist and designer, a graduate of the Department of Visual Communication at Bezalel, winner of international awards (list of awards below), regularly exhibits and very successful in Japan, China, South Korea and USA, exhibited twice in Fresh Paint.

  "The coma of reason gives birth to monsters" said Goya. Lena Rabenko looks them straight in the eye.

Lena draws freely from a wide field of traditions, from illustrations of Russian children's books, through paintings of sacred portraits in iconostasis to Chinese painting and contemporary Japanese comics. She uses her works in the stylistic disguise of a childish, colorful, (but far from innocent) illustration to convey a cynical and sober message that asks the viewer, who is the monster here? Childish expression becomes disturbing when it is aware of itself and becomes an object for observation. Under the guise of a fairy tale, Lena comes to terms with the adult world. It examines what we are forced to part with in the process of growing up and being accepted into it, and brings back to consciousness the magical, wild worlds that have been trained and pushed inside.

In her works, Rabenko deals mainly with emotions: loneliness, pride, fear, love. The little secrets that try to hide, distress, anxieties.

ART EXHIBITIONS 

2020 – group exhibition, Amoureusement Papier, Gallerie Les Souliers Rouges in Clisson, France 2019 – group exhibition, A Midwinter Night s Dream, FROOTS Gallery, Shanghai, China 2018 – personal exhibition, Rabbits, Foxes and other People, Eesti Lastekirjanduse Keskuse Illustratsioonigaleriis, Tallinn, Estonia 2018 – group exhibition, Documenta1, FROOTS Gallery, Shanghai, China 2018 – personal exhibition, Karuizawa New Art Museum, Nagano, Japan 2018 – group exhibition, The Story Museum in Oxford, England 2017 – group exhibition, Ducal Castle in Szczecin, Poland 2017 – group exhibition, LesArt, Berlin, Germany 2016 – group exhibition, Latvijas Nacionālās bibliotēkas, Riga, Latvia 2016 – Illu:Art – group exhibition, Port Gallery, Jaffa, Israel 2016 – group exhibition, the Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń and the Wrocław Puppet Theatre, Poland 2015 – Israeli Glass Biennale – group exhibition / collaboration, Musa museum, Tel Aviv, Israel 2015 – group exhibition, The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre in Gdansk, Poland 2015 – group exhibition, Eesti Lastekirjanduse Keskuse Illustratsioonigaleriis, Tallinn, Estonia 2015 – Family Fresh Paint – group exhibition and workshop, Tel Aviv, Israel 2015 – Baggage, group exhibition, Neurotitan gallery, Berlin 2015 – personal exhibition, Kondas, Viljandi, Estonia 2014 – personal exhibition, Tapa Linnaraamatukogu, Tapa, Estonia 2014 – personal exhibition, Ilon Wiklanda museum, Haapsalu, Estonia 2014 – Vaata ma Vaata, personal exhibition, Eesti Lastekirjanduse Keskuse Illustratsioonigaleriis, Tallinn, Estonia 2014 – Fresh Paint in the Sky – group exhibition, Tel Aviv, Israel 2013 – Circled, personal exhibition, Studio gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel 2013 – Afrodita is searching for a dress, group exhibition, Hariviera gallery, Bat Yam, Israel 2013 – Hong Kong Art Fair, Contempop Gallery, Hong Kong 2013 – Whales and Blue Hair, group exhibition, Venice, Italy 2013 – Miniart, group exhibition, Jaffa Antique Museum, Jaffa, Israel 2013 - Exile of Language, Yad le Banim gallery, Rishon le Zion, Israel 2012 – Affordable Art Fair, Contempop Gallery, Singapore 2012 – SWAB art event, Contempop Gallery, Barcelona, Spain 2012 – Fresh Paint-5 Artfair, independent artists greenhouse, Tel Aviv, Israel 2011 – Butterflies in the Stomach, group exhibition, Holon Design Museum, Israel 2011 – Affordable Art Fair, Contempop Gallery, London, UK 2011 – A Season in Heaven, group exhibition, Florentin 45, Tel Aviv, Israel 2011 – Butterflies in the Stomach, group exhibition, Holon Design Museum, Israel 2011 – Fresh Paint-4 Artfair, independent artists greenhouse, Tel Aviv, Israel 2011 - Group exhibition “The Lightness of Being”, 1918 Artspace, Shanghai, China 2010 - Group exhibition “The Magic of Being”, 1918 Artspace, Shanghai, China 2009 - Group exhibition “Japonaiserie”, Urbanix, Tel Aviv, Israel 2008 - Artwalk, Culver City, represented by Kinsey/DesForges, Los Angeles, USA 2008 - Personal exhibition “Keepers of Little Secrets”, 1918 Artspace, Shanghai, China 2007 - Group exhibition, Red Dot Fair (represented by BLK/MRKT gallery), Art Basel, Miami , USA 2007 - Personal exhibition “Owls and Other People”, Billiken Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2006 - Personal exhibition, Neutron Gallery, Kyoto, Japan