Lena Kassicieh is a Palestinian-American anthropologist, ceramicist, and multidisciplinary artist who moves between Dubai and the United States. Growing up between the deserts of New Mexico, Jordan, and the UAE—her practice is informed by cultural exploration, culminating in her Master of Science in cultural and social anthropology from the University of Amsterdam.
Working across illustrations, ceramics, collage, installation, painting, and photography, Lena’s work explores themes of migration, memory, joy as a form of resistance, and color as a form of emotional processing. Playfulness emerges as the connective thread throughout Lena's diverse body of work where she cultivates a sense of childlike wonder—that electric curiosity that allows us to see commonplace items and scenes with new eyes. Through her intuitive exploration of color, shape, form, and texture, she builds compositions that capture spontaneous moments of joy and revelation. Beneath this playful surface lies a deep engagement with history, anthropology, and memory. Lena approaches objects, photographs, and archival materials as powerful vessels that move through space and time, exploring narratives of diaspora identity, grief, loss, and acceptance. Her anthropological background allows her to create work that speaks to both personal and collective memory across cultural landscapes.
Through a multifaceted artistic practice, Lena investigates the interstices between identity, joy, and contemplative space. Her work exists as a material meditation on the notions of belonging, liminality, and the quiet transcendence found within playful expression. Employing a diverse visual vocabulary across disciplines, she deconstructs conventional boundaries between craft and fine art, positioning her practice within discourses of democratization and accessibility. Her approach challenges institutional hierarchies, inviting viewers into spaces where art functions as both personal archive and collective experience.
The artist's transcultural perspective—informed by her diaspora experiences—manifests in compositions that explore the poetics of memory and displacement. This sensibility creates a visual language where whimsy functions not merely as aesthetic choice but as methodological inquiry into the nature of joy as resistance.
Her work with archival materials and object-based narratives operates as both anthropological investigation and intimate autobiography, interrogating how cultural artifacts transcend their material constraints to become vessels of temporal and spatial storytelling. Through this democratization of artwork, Lena creates entry points for diverse audiences to engage with complex questions of heritage and contemporary identity formation.
Her work has garnered recognition in prominent publications including GQ Arabia, Architectural Digest Middle East, Vogue Arabia, and Tribe Magazine. Her artistic presence extends to Dubai Design Week and Amman Design Week, while her large-scale murals transform spaces like Dubai Design District, ICD Brookfield Place, and 25Hours Hotel One Central.