Lena Imamura | Artist & Entrepreneur

It’s a little surreal to find myself in yesterday’s New York Times — featured in the Metro section as this week’s Routine 🖤 Grateful to the NYT team for capturing a glimpse of my world — the rhythms of neon, business, alter egos, systems, rituals, and all the in-between moments that shape how I move through life. Of course, it’s just one slice of one wild day. In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more behind the scenes — this piece reminded me how much of my work tends to stay behind the curtain: – Building @metalabel__ , where we’re developing artist-support structures and launching @artistcorporations – The artwork I installed at Karen Wong’s office that started it all, alongside new neon that GLO Studio is creating for the @newmuseum – Deep gratitude to the @glostudio team, who are running the ship — lighting up people’s lives with neon while I stretch the vision outward, shining light on artists – And the experimental gallery space I’m carving out with @loraappleton through GLO modern, to showcase future-forward creative work Fun fact: the original interview ran about 5,000 words… the final article is 1,200. So if it feels like there’s more to the story — there absolutely is 😅 Thank you for reading — and for witnessing even a fragment of the process. 💫 [link in bio] #Routines #NYT #Metalabel #GloStudio #karenwong #GloModern #CreativePractice #ArtLife #Gratitude #NuanceMatters

“You are not alone (Flower Messages)” 2024 Glass Neon, Acrylic, Artificial Lilies, LED screen, Dream 16in W x20 inHx~4 in D Today is the last day to see this piece and others (May 23) in“Crafting Selfhood” at @31philliplim curated by @loraappleton and Karen Wong showcasing 13 female AAPI artists. #CraftingSelfhood … #neonart #floralart #mixedmediasculpture #lenaimamura #karenwong #aapiartists #japaneseartist #contemporarysculpture #etherealart #neonartist #neonartwork #messagesfromtheuniverse

Went with blue on a whim, Now may need, new wardrobe 🦋 (Sunday poems + dumps) Slide 2: man with speaker - was an inspiration 🔊 Slide 3: serial experiments lain on my brain a lot 🧠 Slide 4: spa day with mom and friends 🧖‍♀️ Slide 5: @thekitchen_nyc @tromarama 👣 Slide 6: @tempersmusic sunset golden hour 🌅 Slide 7: troubleshooting new piece 🎮 Slide 8: @themirf catching a pigeon 🕊️ Slide 9: some intentions 🕯️ Slide 10: unwanted house constructions 🤪 Slide 11: fire spirit I should’ve bought 🔥 Slide 12: cooper gal crew @that_ivy @leighruple @thoughtsondeck @leaceterastudio 💖 Slide 13: frank the minion I carry w me everywhere 💛 Slide 14: @ianreidianreid pics from the road 🛣️

Getting older sometimes feels like getting younger. 💖 Slide 1: circa 2000-2003 Slide 2: 2026 💎 Real diamonds could never replace my love of friendship bracelets. If you’ve ever given me one, I’ve 1000% worn it down to its last thread. The candy raver in me has not left. 🍭 I recently uncovered my old Kandi. Back then you’d walk around the city and bump into friends or trade them with fellow party kids in a cuddle pile on the dance floor at 2am. And if you were special, someone you’d just met would go home, make one just for you, and give it to you at the next party. Those moments made me feel so seen. A whole week or month could go by, and they’d hold onto it until they saw you again. Something that said: I remembered you. 🫂 I miss when there was room for that kind of magic. Real time, slow time. The spark from people just being together with no agenda and nowhere to be. ✨ Following friends around parts of the city I never would have found otherwise. Better than scrolling 🤳🏽 Better than grinding 🛞. I’m grateful to still have these moments 🙏. I think there are still ways to make that kind of magic happen today. Esp now that we’re on the Internet for so much of our days. Working on figuring out how.​​​​​​​​​ 🧠

Dusted off the electronics tools and turned the electrical brain back online 🧠 The dusty boxes and mental cobwebs I had to dig through to get to this first moment of soldering kept me from making this piece for 6 months. How's that for procrastination? 🤪 Celebrating the small win so I don't skip past it 💖 Thank you new moon in Aries for pushing me off the chair and saying "IT'S TIME!!!!" ❤️‍🔥 Celebrating all those who push past the blocks 🧱 #sculptureishard

I dug up my high school journals and I’m getting reacquainted with my teenage self. 💖 I knew her as being feisty but what I didn’t remember was how emo and self-aware she was of that toughness covering something. The insecurity underneath, the awkwardness, the pain. She was also so much more emotional than I remembered. So astute, tender, and earnest. She was really paying attention. Flash forward to now, I’m currently training myself to become more aware of my own thoughts, and what’s mind blowing is that my thought patterns are still the same! 🤯 The good ones and the bad. Different character, different problems, it’s the same story. It’s wild to study yourself across time like this. I highly recommend it! ✌️ Will share more as I get more acquainted. Slide 1: my tag was Apathy. “I 💗ed” 2002. LOL for the girl who felt everything. Slide 2: a poem written on the back of a Phillies Blunt pack. Likely at the crack of dawn on a rooftop in NYC after a long night of partying. Slide 3: front of said blunt pack. remember these?! “Brings Blissful joy at dawn, like a bird covered in morning ash” 🕊️ WUT? 🤣 Still, LOVE her. 🫂💖

Welcome to a place where fire meets electricity, glass bends to human breath, and light sparks to life. ⚡️💡 Join @georgeoliphant as he steps inside @glostudio — a hidden gem located in NYC’s Chinatown — as he meets with artist, scientist, and entrepreneur Lena Imamura to experience the alchemy of neon-making firsthand. Proudly artist-led and women-owned, GLO Studio fuses craftsmanship and chemistry into handcrafted works of light and beauty. And if their work looks familiar, it’s because they generously contributed a bespoke piece (aka “A Place to Flourish” 🥹🙏) during our renovation of the Bowery Mission’s career center & staff lounge area. From bending molten glass in open flame to charging tubes with noble gases, Lena reveals the precise choreography of heat, air, motion, and science that transforms fragile materials into radiant works of art. We uncover the plasma-powered magic behind neon’s iconic glow, the breathtaking moment of first light, and why a masterfully handcrafted neon piece can shine on for decades. 🌟 Tap the 🔗 in the bio for the full neon-making session! #neon #explorepage #chinatown #artist

Every neon light you’ve ever loved was shaped by hands you’ll never see 🤲 Someone bent that glass over a flame for hours. Someone wired it. Someone figured out how to mount it on a wall that wasn’t built for it. Someone drove it across the city hoping it wouldn’t break. Someone answered a client’s call at 8am to make sure the colors were right. There is so much darkness and noise right now. And in the middle of all of it, there are people (🚫🤖) quietly making beautiful things with their hands. Not for the algorithm. Not for the trend cycle. Because they believe that what they do matters. For love, for meaning, for joy. 💖 Last week @george2rescue and @nbc came to 🎥 @glostudio to feature handmade businesses, and it reminded me of something I think about a lot – how much of what makes something beautiful is the part you never see. The decision about which color backing to use. The energy moving through a tube before it becomes light. The invisible forces behind every visible thing. I’ve spent most of my career being one of those invisible forces. Building things behind the scenes. Making things happen that no one sees. So I’m grateful when someone does what George and NBC did for us: makes the invisible a little more visible. It makes me want to do the same for others. More on the episode soon. Feeling grateful to everyone whose hands have ever shaped something beautiful that someone else got credit for. We see you!!! 🙏 Credits to the G2R team: @georgeoliphant @kylelivesalone @romiurhomie @andrewjbank And GLO team: @jporterhousley @taddytootall @mehiko.floral And others who are SM shy 🫶 #invisiblehands #neonart #signmaker #handmadewithlove❤️ #craftartists

I was born and raised in New York by two artists who came here from Japan in the late 70s to pursue their art and build lives that didn’t feel possible where they were from. My dad made a living as a musician, playing gigs, theater, and costume design. My mom was a modern dancer, studying with the early Martha Graham Company and performing off Broadway. It wasn’t easy, but it was possible. They raised a child here while continuing their creative lives, and that environment shaped everything about who I am. Today, that same path feels nearly impossible. The cost of living and the imbalance of time and resources have made creative life unsustainable for too many. So much potential never gets the chance to exist. As New York City enters a new chapter, it feels meaningful to see long-held values finally reflected. Affordability, culture, innovation, and a safe society are inseparable. Naming this creates an opening. I’ve dedicated my life and career to enabling creative possibility. The work is just beginning. No one person can make this happen. I believe it’s something we can only build together. I ❤️‍🔥 NYC. #zohranmamdani #affordablenyc #artisessential #iheartnyc

Some of my favorite moments of flow from 2025. Grateful for the joy, the people, the love, the magic, and the support that showed up again and again, even alongside everything else happening around us. Riding these waves together keeps me going, with many more to celebrate. Heading into 2026 with a simple focus: to be present, and stay awake ❤️‍🔥👁️🌱

Is it just me, or does everything feel different lately? I’m finally starting to come out from under the weight of last month’s eclipses. For the first time in weeks (months?), I feel like I’m touching ground again. 🐾Thankfully, it feels like something is finally breaking through the fog. I’m wondering if others feel that too. It sounds strange to say, but I think I’ve been in an eclipse portal that collapsed time, stretching all the way back to the first ones in March. I’m not even sure what happened in between, but somewhere along the way my whole life quietly rearranged itself. Only now, as I slow down and reflect, do I realize how much has happened, and how much has changed. Broadly speaking, this year’s eclipses invited us to release old patterns and settle into a new rhythm. For me, the undercurrent has definitely shifted, though things are still unfolding. 🐛 This video traces one thread of that transition — a new form I’m working through that’s helping me look at, honor, and process my past. Reflecting on the ways we carry our stuff with us everywhere we go, and imagining what it might be like if we were all just a little more honest — and clear-hearted — about it in our everyday lives. 💖🫧 #clearheartclearmind #resinpouring #timelapseart #inthemaking #processvideo #resincasting #heartart

Next Thursday, Nov 6th, please join me in celebrating the opening of a group show, “SOFT IS POWER” featuring: Amatus Sami - @amatus23 Anna Sheffield - @littlegateaudeleon Jamie Nami Kim - @jamienamikimstudio Lena Imamura - @lenaimamura Paul Waters - @paulwatersartist Rossana Romero - @rossanaromero__ Shantell Martin - @shantell_martin Tempers - @tempersmusic Tianna Rodriguez - @tiannuska SOFT IS POWER is inspired by the concept of soft power, coined by political scientist Joseph S. Nye to describe the ability to influence through attraction, persuasion, and culture rather than force. Emotional intelligence, intuition, tenderness, cooperation, vulnerability, receptivity, and care are seen as “less than” in dominant culture. Yet these are the forces that build trust, spark change, and shift consciousness.  Practicing softness in a harsh world is radical, strategic and visionary. What if softness isn’t a counterpoint to power, but a form of power itself? A 2 week long installation hosted by Jamie Nami Kim and Paul Waters at their studio on 163 Bowery, New York, NY. I’ll be showing new work 💖 Opening Night Celebration: November 6, 2025 163 Bowery, New York, NY. 6pm - 8pm Learn more at 🔗 163bowery.com