Alena (pronounced as ‘A-lyo-na’) Rogozhkina is a Ukrainian-born Edinburgh-based visual artist and a researcher driven by a passion for community wellbeing. Linking both her background in Behavioural Science and Contemporary Art Practice, she expresses her own emotional realities while exploring the limits that people have to create a better everyday reality. Alena works across notions of time, memory, materiality, decay, and connection with a range of media including found materials, installation, photography, painting, printmaking, and moving image.
Alena regularly leads creative projects for displaced communities across Scotland. She strongly believes in art as a powerful tool that we can use to drive social change, rebuild trust, and infuse optimism into our ordinary lives. Alena has recently established Abandoned Artists CIC to develop the platform to support Ukrainian displaced Artists in Scotland. Alena’s current collaborators are creative and cultural organisations including Edinburgh Ukrainian Community Centre, Art in Healthcare, Scottish National Galleries, Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre, Volunteer Edinburgh, Life with Art, and ArtLink to bring numerous community art projects to life.
At her studio, Alena also facilitates bespoke creative experiences for individuals to help them discover their creative voices, empower them for changes, and support challenging transitions in life. She is also a Creative mentor for the Creative Edinburgh mentoring programme helping emerging artists navigate their professional path by doing what they love the most.
Alena is a member of the Scottish Contemporary Art Network and Edinburgh Printmakers. She also continues developing her practice by enrolling in the current cohort of the Year-Long Drawing course at Leith School of Art.