Lena Snow

Orion Girl No 11 – Alnilam
Acrylic on paper
62 x 43 cm, framed

Lena Snow

Lena Snow’s artistic journey is marked by a vibrant exploration of femininity, mythology, and cosmic narratives, deeply rooted in her engagement with the medium of paper. With a master’s degree from the University of Mannheim and Karlsruhe, Lena has honed her focus on female portraiture, which she believes is a powerful and emancipatory lens through which to view identity and sexuality.

Her artwork, “Orion Girl No 11 – Alnilam,” is a part of the Orion Girls Series. This series, inspired by the mythical and magical Orion constellation, features alien girls as representations of something transcendental, yet untouchable, infusing the celestial with the personal. Lena’s artistic process involves inspiration drawn from a blend of personal stories of women, mythological narratives, and the powerful female figures of film and literature, underlining a new paradigm of empowered feminine identity​.

Lena’s Archaic Goddesses Series further exemplifies her thematic approach, where natural and wild origins are depicted as metaphors for survival and powerful navigation through the world. Transformation, a key concept in this series, is considered a means of survival and indicative of the feminine ability to adapt and exert influence. Through her depictions, Lena posits that goddesses are not singular entities but are representative of a collective unconscious that binds all human experience, with myth serving as a vital, multifaceted language of this shared existence​.

In the thematic and aesthetic fabric of Lena Snow’s work, there is a palpable intention to go beyond the creation of art; her paintings are dialogues on the nature of existence and identity. They are testaments to the shared stories of womanhood, imbued with a sense of empowerment and recognition of the universal feminine essence. Whether it’s an acrylic painting on paper or a mixed media sculpture, her creations reflect a continuous interaction with the world – a conversation between the artist, her subjects, and her audience, encapsulated within the realms of contemporary mythmaking and identity exploration.

Her participation in the Salon de Refusées in Berlin situates her work within a broader context of contemporary gender discourse, challenging the audience to consider the future trajectories of female identity and empowerment. Lena Snow’s art thus becomes a bridge between the ancient and the imminent, between the deeply personal and the expansively universal.

Leider wurde meine Kunst oft abgelehnt, da sie Nacktheit darstellt. Ich finde das äußerst schade, da Kunst eigentlich offen und vielfältig sein sollte. Meiner Auffassung nach ist der Körper sowie auch die weibliche Brust etwas Natürliches und Nacktheit wurde schon immer in der Kunst dargestellt. Das hat nichts mit Anzüglichkeit zu tun, sondern mit Natürlichkeit, Ästhetik und Freiheit. Man muss auch bedenken, dass wir diese Ausdrucksfreiheit genießen und ausschöpfen können, da die Darstellung von Nacktheit (besonders femininer Nacktheit) in anderen Ländern verboten ist. Den Salon de Refusées finde ich eine sehr gute Möglichkeit, Künstlern – insbesondere mit abgelehnten Werken – ein Erfolgserlebnis zu bereiten. Das ist für viele eine positive und motivierende Erfahrung. Außerdem werden bei Ausstellungen für zeitgenössischer Kunst oft wundervolle Kunstwerke abgelehnt und die Auswahl scheint sehr der Willkür zu obliegen.

– Lena Snow