About

Hi — I’m Lena Imamura, a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur born and based in New York City. I work across light, technology, and creative infrastructure to build spaces, experiences, and systems that support cultural expression — and help creative energy move, connect, and take shape.

 

I’m the cofounder of GLO Studio, a neon light business that brought custom neon into the direct-to-consumer space in 2016 with the industry's first neon design app, transforming light into a medium for personal storytelling. I recently joined the team as a partner at Metalabel, to help build the platform of my dreams where creative people can collectively publish their work and build momentum and value together. Coming soon is GLO Modern, an experimental gallery for symbolic objects and cultural souvenirs, located at the front of GLO Studio, cofounded with Lora Appleton.

 

My work is rooted in a background spanning cultural production, art, and design. I explore how light and structure reveal the energy currents that shape our physical, emotional, and communal worlds. I consider energy my true medium — a force I channel through illuminated artworks, artist-centric infrastructures, and experimental spaces that fuse technology, intention, and symbolic form.

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I shape systems like I shape light — not just to function, but to guide, to transmit, to invite connection. Whether I’m building a neon piece, a digital ritual, or a cultural framework, I’m asking the same thing: what wants to come through here? And how can I make space for it?

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My path

 

I was born and raised in New York City by artist parents — a dancer and a musician — who taught me that creativity is both inheritance and discipline. I studied fine art at The Cooper Union and immersed myself in cultural production through artist-run collectives, performances, and independent projects.

My early career was shaped by supporting other artists — building infrastructures that helped their visions move into the world. I founded Acountess to help artists manage finances and projects, and later joined Kickstarter, where I learned how creative systems can scale with technology. GLO Studio emerged from those threads: a space to shape light, stories, and systems at once

 

 

Everything I build — from objects to organizations — is in service of creative aliveness. I believe in visibility without spectacle, structure without rigidity, and momentum that’s shared, not hoarded. I build containers where artists — including myself — can thrive.