Biography

Lea Embeli is a painter, illustrator, and concept artist. She graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, specializing in Applied Painting, where she also completed her MA studies. During her studies, she was awarded multiple scholarships, including the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development scholarship and the Dositej scholarship from the Foundation for Young Talents. She is the recipient of the Aleksandar Tomašević Award for academic excellence, the ULUPUDS Award in the field of applied painting, and the Vučković Award for young artists from her hometown, Pančevo.

In 2021, she received the MEXT Japanese government scholarship for research in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, where she became a regular student and has been pursuing her second MA since April 2023. She is set to graduate from Tokyo University of the Arts in March 2025 and continues to work as an artist.Beyond painting, she began illustrating books in 2016 for publishers such as “Zavod,” “Bigz,” and “Kreativni centar,” as well as the French publisher “Fleurus.” She has also worked in animation as a character designer and concept artist for studios including ToBlink Studios and Bunker in Serbia, as well as Animoon Studios in Poland. Additionally, she briefly worked as a teaching assistant in painting techniques at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade.