Layla Love
Born 1977 United States
In Layla Love's work, she is able to go beyond aesthetics, striving to shed light on hidden truths. Her art captures life as a series of adventures with her intention being to ignite a spark of passion and purpose for the viewer.
Love's artistic path has been anything but conventional. Having experienced the confines of foreign prisons and the grandeur of royal palaces, she has learned to employ the power of creative force to transcend boundaries.
With degrees in journalism and global communications, Love recognized the immense impact of visual imagery in our modern communication process. This realization led her to embark on a five-year photojournalism tour to war-torn and compromised regions.
Love's photography has garnered international recognition, with exhibitions spanning the globe. Her work has graced prestigious venues such as the White House and at art world congregations such as Paris Photo, Art Basel, and the AiPAD Photography Show in New York. Sharing the same spaces with artistic luminaries such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Pablo Picasso, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Kara Walker, Love's photography has solidified her position as a respected figure in the art world.
One of Love's most celebrated images, "The Fullest Bloom," captivated the attention of the Tiffany & Co. Art Director, Anne Rogers, leading to its adaptation for over 30 of their diamond showrooms worldwide. This attests to Love's meticulous attention to detail and love for creating that which elevates beauty.
Reflecting on her artistic journey, Love's passion for photography traces back to her childhood. By the time she was twelve, she found a mentor who taught her the intricacies of film development and printing. From thereon, she started immersing herself in the darkroom. In recent years, she has created mixed media pieces falling into contemporary art that explore the layering of paint and photography employed with mixed media on precious woods with 24-carat gold leaf.
Through her art, she bridges the tangible and intangible elements of existence, seeking that which transcends words. It is during these moments when language falls short that Love turns to her art, expressing emotions and experiences that elude verbal expression. Love’s ethos is one of reverence for our world through environmental sustainability. She believes that art loses its ego when paired with purpose, therein she creates with an understanding that art changes people and that people change the world.
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