Svetlana Rabey was born in Moscow Russia. She trained in classical dance and earned a BFA from Parsons School of Design in 1996. Svetlana has experimented with various styles, genres and materials in her works. Her personal history, including dance and her Russian heritage, is a common thread binding her art across different media- writing, drawing, painting and sculpture. She received the Marie Walsh Sharpe Space grant in 2006 and the Chashama residency program in Harlem in 2007, 2016, 2018. She has been a recipient of the NYFA drawing fellowship 2015. Svetlana lives and works in New York City with her family.