Lea Nikel was was an Israeli abstract artist, born in 1920 in Ukraine, and on 1920 immigrated to Palestine. She was one of Israel's most esteemed artists.

Nikel's style was a form of expressionistic abstraction sometimes called lyrical abstraction. She painted with a brusque, generous touch and favored high-keyed colors. She was known for buoyant compositions consisting of rough-edged blocks of color and scribbly, calligraphic lines that together conveyed a sense of imaginative excitement and urgent sensuousness.

. In 1995 she received the Israel Prize for painting and in 1997 was made a Chevalier of Arts and Letters by the French minister of culture.