Hold Me Close

“Hold Me Close is from the We are the Environment print series.

The series explores my passions of fashion, sustainability and environment. We are the Environment unravels the process of seven sustainable fashion designers to tell the story of climate change and man’s relationship to the environment. Innovative, thought-provoking, community focused and future thinking, these designers show us that clothes – their source, manufacture and design – are inseparable from the way we see and exist within the environment. Fashion is inseparable from our impact on the planet. We are the environment.

Inspired by the work of Elliss, the image plays with the idea of the landscape as our second skin. Inherently terrain, the artwork encapsulates our interconnectedness with nature’s resources and our responsibility to hold the planet close.

This piece means a lot to me. It speaks to me as a young woman who loves fashion whilst yearning for a greater awareness of how our choices affect the planet.”

MEDIUM | Archival Ink on Canson Aquarelle Paper | Limited Edition of 25 Giclée prints (unframed)

AUTHENTICITY | Signed certificate of authenticity

Availability: 25 in stock

£90.00

ARTIST BIO
JOANNA LAYLA

Joanna Layla is an artist-illustrator whose unique style inspired by the worlds of fashion, literature and art has won her recognition in the creative industries. Shortlisted for the Prize for Illustration in 2017 and selected for PICTORIA: Best Contemporary Illustrators Worldwide 2019, she is regularly commissioned by well-known brands and institutions and has been mentioned in The Guardian for her ‘elegant graphics’.

Through her fluid lines and minimalist design, Joanna Layla’s practice explores themes of identity and self-expression through the human body as an extension of the self. Her drive to visually document beauty in the human form pushes her drawings to redefine gender through the boldness of her feminine brushstrokes, blurring the lines between accepted masculine and feminine forms.

“My drive to draw is to try to capture some beauty I see. I find beauty in the most unexpected places. I love looking at people on the train or on the crowded streets. This urgency to document something beautiful is fundamental to why I want to express myself visually.”

Through the process of emotional creation, Joanna Layla brings to life a true expression of the elusive and unconditional love in its primal state. There is an awareness of human vulnerability apparent in her work where the figurative meets the abstract to express an idea. Light, space and the horizon come together in Joanna Layla’s drawings to encapsulate a sense of freedom that guides her subconscious explorations of what it means to be human.

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Awards | Selected for PICTORIA: Best Contemporary Illustrators Worldwide, 2019; Shortlisted for the Prize for Illustration (London), 2017

Featured | Cicada Wheels, 2019; Konglomerat Berlin, 2018; The Guardian, 2016