Lana Hackbarth is a visual artist and writer from Boston, Massachusetts, now living and working in Berlin. Her creative work moves at the edge of the symbolic and the emotional — drawing from memory, myth, and the unseen forces that shape our inner worlds.

With a background in classical portraiture and figure drawing, Lana’s early practice was rooted in precision and form. Over time, her work has expanded into more intuitive terrain — dreamlike spaces where detail, abstraction, and archetype converge. Her first collection explores this shift, fusing the real and the surreal in pieces that invite both curiosity and contemplation. Symbols appear spontaneously, yet are layered with intention — each one part of a language that asks to be felt before it is understood.

Her upcoming series, Celestial Bodies: Decoding Identities Through the Stars, continues this evolution. Drawing from astrology and natal chart interpretations, the work uses cosmic systems as creative frameworks. It seeks to explore the relationship between personal identity and universal rhythm — how something as intimate as a birth chart can offer connection to something far larger than ourselves.

Lana’s writing emerges from the same impulse: to illuminate the quiet places within us. Her debut book, The Introspector, is a collection of short prose and interwoven stories that follow the thread of thought through grief, solitude, and connection. At the heart of the book is a recurring tale — the journey of a traveler through shifting landscapes that mirror memory and emotional states. Forests, cities, and imagined terrains serve as reflections of the past, inviting readers to locate themselves in the story, wherever they are in their own lives.

Whether working in visual or written form, Lana’s work offers a space for pause — a gentle invitation inward. Her practice is less about providing answers, and more about creating moments of recognition: where wonder, discomfort, and meaning quietly meet.