Yelena Lembersky grew up in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, in 1969. As a child, she studied painting, piano, and classical guitar, and learned English since she was eight.

In 1987, she and her mother, Galina Lembersky, emigrated to the United States. Yelena continued her studies at the University of Michigan, graduating with a double Bachelors in Art and Science in 1991. She moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to pursue her Masters of Architecture at MIT.

While working as an architect, she began to research her grandfather’s art, which led to her first book, a monograph, Felix Lembersky: Paintings and Drawings, published by Galart in 2009. Her memoir, Like a Drop of Ink in a Downpour: Memories of Soviet Russia, co-authored with her mother, tells the story of her growing up in Leningrad, the legacy of her grandfather, artist Felix Lembersky, her mother’s decision to emigrate, and their lives as refuseniks in the 1970s and ’80s.