# Lena Sabadina — Official Artist Website

> Lena Sabadina (b. 1988, Enerhodar, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian-born, Sweden-based contemporary artist known for her striking mixed-media paintings that merge acrylic painting with traditional Ukrainian cross-stitch embroidery—stitched directly into the canvas.

## About

- **Name**: Lena Sabadina
- **Born**: 1988, Enerhodar, Ukraine
- **Based**: Valbo, Sweden (since 2014)
- **Citizenship**: Swedish (since 2020)
- **Medium**: Acrylic on canvas with traditional Ukrainian cross-stitch embroidery
- **Languages**: Ukrainian, Swedish, English
- **Website**: https://lenasabadina.com
- **Instagram**: https://www.instagram.com/lenasabadina

## Artist Statement

I am a Ukrainian artist living in Valbo, Sweden. My work lives at the intersection of painting and textile — I combine acrylic on canvas with hand-embroidered cross-stitch, a technique rooted in Ukrainian folk tradition that my grandmother first placed in my hands as a child.

Embroidery in Ukraine is never merely decorative. It carries memory, identity, and resistance. Each stitch is a word in a language older than borders. In my paintings, I use this language deliberately — as a symbol that can bloom, burn, be devoured, and rise again.

My collection Fields of Home is a four-part journey through war and survival. It begins in the golden peace of a Ukrainian countryside, moves through devastation and darkness, confronts the face of evil, and arrives finally at resilience — a single embroidered sunflower standing against blue and gold, stitched back into existence by hand.

These paintings are not documents of despair. They are an act of refusal — the refusal to let beauty, culture, and memory be erased.

## Themes

War, displacement, resilience, cultural identity, memory, motherhood, migration, Ukrainian heritage, hope, survival.

## Collections

Her long-term body of work spans eight major series:
1. Ashes and Sunflowers
2. Women of Ukraine
3. Reconstruction
4. The Diaspora
5. Eternal Ukraine
6. Echoes of Childhood
7. Voices of the Earth
8. Beyond Borders

## Current Exhibition Series: Ashes and Sunflowers

A four-part journey through Ukraine's struggle, painted in abstract form:

1. **Fields of Home** (2025) — Peaceful hues evoking Ukraine's sunflower fields and wide skies before the storm.
2. **The Burning Silence** (2026) — The chaos of war in fractured reds and scorched grays.
3. **The Faceless Beast** (2026) — A monstrous form symbolizing cruelty, oppression, and destruction.
4. **Rise of the Sunflower** (2026) — Golden petals rising through blue, symbolizing resilience and rebirth.

## Pages

- Homepage: https://lenasabadina.com/
- Gallery: https://lenasabadina.com/#gallery
- Print Shop: https://lenasabadina.com/#shop
- About: https://lenasabadina.com/#about
- Contact: https://lenasabadina.com/#contact
- Press Kit: https://lenasabadina.com/press-kit

## Press & Media

- Interview with Artist Close Up (February 2025): https://www.artistcloseup.com/blog/interview-lena-sabadina

## Contact

For exhibition inquiries, acquisitions, commissions, interviews, or press requests:
- Email: press@lenasabadina.com

## Extended Information

For full artist biography, artwork descriptions, and interview content, see:
- llms-full.txt: https://lenasabadina.com/llms-full.txt