Lena Hansen is an archivist and curator passionate about art and archives.

She was the 2023-2024 curatorial fellow at Brew House Arts, Pittsburgh, where she curated an exhibition titled Blank Tape. The exhibition explored the prevalence and impact of surveillance in society.

Prior to her time in Pittsburgh, Lena was the Associate Director at Aicon Contemporary, New York, where she cultivated a robust roster of artists, putting emphasis on artists typically underrepresented in the New York art scene. She has curated multiple exhibitions, such as Judith Has Arrived (2021), Notes from the Motherland (2021), I Shouted My Laughter to the Stars (2022), and Feast of the Gods (2022). Lena’s curatorial practice has focused on contemporary art by South/Southeast Asian artists both from within and outside the United States. 

Lena earned a Masters in Library and Information Science (MLIS) from the University of Pittsburgh. While there, she processed the university archive’s first entirely born-digital collection. She also holds a Masters in Anthropology from The New School for Social Research. Her research at the New School focused on institutional critique and labor practices in the art world. She graduated with honors for her thesis project On Guard, which looked at the history of policing and surveillance in museums. It included a short documentary featuring interviews with former museum guards at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lena was the curatorial assistant for The New School’s Art Collection. She was also an archival assistant at The New School’s Archives and Special Collections. 

Lena Hansen was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She lives in New York City.

lenahansen2811@gmail.com