IA Talk x Lena Yokoyama
Lena Yokoyama is a japanese-austrian illustrator, printmaker and mural artist based in London.
Uniquely combining printmaking, painting and digital techniques, she has applied her language to projects with Hermès, The New York Times, Google, Airbnb, It’s Nice That, The TATE, The Austrian Embassy and Selfridges ... to only name a few!
What is most inspiring to me about her work, and her as a person, is her ability to elevate small moments and gestures through her observations. Looking at the world through her art, it becomes a place full of beauty and worth taking note of. This feeling seeps through her work, whether she is working on window displays for Selfridges, draws portraits at live-events for Hermès, or her personal explorations in her sketchbooks.
(Lena also teaches pottery at the illustration programme at the Camberwell College of Arts, is a dancer and avid traveller.) ︎
Having grown up in a multicultural environment, she continues to highlight diversity in a playful, colourful and optimistic way. I am so lucky to have met her on one of her travels to New York and to be able to call her my friend. She continues to inspire me.
If you want to start the new year feeling inspired and enamoured with the world, then start here by being enamoured with Lena Yokayama!