Lena Binnington
Lena Binnington is a contemporary jewellery artist and goldsmith based in Gatineau, Quebec working at the intersection of adornment, sculpture, and material inquiry. With a multidisciplinary background in fine art, environmental studies, and psychology, she approaches jewellery as both adornment and a conceptual medium that carries meaning on and off the body.
A graduate of the Jewellery Arts program at George Brown College (2019) and the University of Toronto (2014), Lena has developed a practice that balances technical precision with artistic exploration. Her work bridges traditional metalsmithing and experimental materials, producing objects that are both refined and eccentric while challenging notions of wearability and value.
Central to her practice is a commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical material use. She works with recycled plastics, organic matter, and precious metals, considering the lifecycle of materials and the environmental impact of making. Her most recent body of work explores a speculative future in which synthetic materials have replaced natural forms. Through techniques such as fusing layered plastics alongside silver, enamel, and organic elements, she has created jewellery, sculptural, and wall-based works that tell the story of an imagined future – where sparce remnants of nature exist in a manmade ecosystem that attempts to mimic organic flora of the past. The resulting pieces are curious, nostalgic and dreamlike.
Lena completed a full-time Craft & Design artist residency at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre in 2023. In recent years, she has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally, and has recently completed a grant project generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.
A graduate of the Jewellery Arts program at George Brown College (2019) and the University of Toronto (2014), Lena has developed a practice that balances technical precision with artistic exploration. Her work bridges traditional metalsmithing and experimental materials, producing objects that are both refined and eccentric while challenging notions of wearability and value.
Central to her practice is a commitment to environmental sustainability and ethical material use. She works with recycled plastics, organic matter, and precious metals, considering the lifecycle of materials and the environmental impact of making. Her most recent body of work explores a speculative future in which synthetic materials have replaced natural forms. Through techniques such as fusing layered plastics alongside silver, enamel, and organic elements, she has created jewellery, sculptural, and wall-based works that tell the story of an imagined future – where sparce remnants of nature exist in a manmade ecosystem that attempts to mimic organic flora of the past. The resulting pieces are curious, nostalgic and dreamlike.
Lena completed a full-time Craft & Design artist residency at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre in 2023. In recent years, she has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally, and has recently completed a grant project generously funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.