Monyuri is the studio name of Monica, a London-based artist and art director whose bold, colourful portraits combine woodcut printing, collage, digital illustration and hand-painted marks. Her Brazilian and Japanese heritage, and a life lived between São Paulo, Dubai and London, runs through every face she makes. We asked her where the work comes from, how she makes it and where it looks best at home. The answers are her own.
Who is Monyuri?
“I started making art before I can remember,” Monica says. “As a child, my favourite birthday present wasn’t a doll or a toy, but a box filled with coloured pens. I can still remember the excitement of opening it and imagining everything I could create.”
Drawing came first, but she tried everything: origami, papier-mâché, painting, collage and later woodcut printing, then watercolour, acrylics and graphite. Eventually she became an art director. “Advertising became my profession, but art never stopped running alongside it.”
That practice has travelled with her from São Paulo to Dubai and now London, through different careers, countries and motherhood. Today it brings together traditional craft and digital techniques — “the same instinct to draw, make and tell stories that began with that box of coloured pens.”
What does her art look like?
In her own words: “Bold, figurative and richly textured. My work combines the graphic strength of woodcut printing with collage, digital art and hand-painted marks. I’m drawn to imperfection, raw edges, visible textures and pieces that retain a sense of the process behind them.”
Colour is the engine of it all, but with a built-in tension. “I love layering colour, pattern and texture, while also searching for the point where I can strip everything back and let the image breathe.”
Her subject is almost always a person, and most often a woman. “I’m particularly interested in portraying women, identity and cultural memory. Traditional craft and technology, personal histories and contemporary portraiture come together, with the human presence always at the heart of the work.”
Where does the inspiration come from?
“I find inspiration in people, particularly women, and in the stories, cultures and visual traditions I have encountered throughout my life.” Faces, traditional clothing, patterns, names and family histories — “the way identity is carried through colour and personal style.”
Some projects begin close to home. “My series portraying Indigenous people was inspired by my father’s work with Indigenous communities in Brazil, while my recent African Names collection grew from my travels and a fascination with the histories and meanings held within names.”
Portraits inspired by Indigenous Brazil
Rooted in Colour is the one to start with if you want a single piece that fills a wall. See all prints by Monyuri →
She doesn’t point to one artist as the source, although “I have always loved the colour and simplicity of Matisse, Miró, Keith Haring and Pop Art.” The bigger influence is visual culture itself: Indigenous Brazilian body painting, African textiles, traditional patterns — and years of living in Vila Madalena in São Paulo, “surrounded by street art and independent artists.”
If you like her work, Matisse and Keith Haring sit well beside it.
The story behind Mmapula
Mmapula began as an illustration for Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign in South Africa. The agency invited artists to choose local names and create portraits that expressed something of their meaning. “I was immediately drawn to the names with the most beautiful stories behind them, and to imagining the women who might carry them.”
Mmapula means “mother of rain”, so motherhood became central. Her first drawing showed the woman carrying the bottle on her back, the way she had seen women carry their children: “held close with a beautifully patterned cloth, while their hands remained free to carry everything else life required of them.”
As the poster developed, the bottle moved into her arms so it could be the hero of the composition. Around it, Monica built Mmapula’s world from bold colour, patterns and facial markings, drawing on South African textiles and visual traditions.
“Although it began with a commercial brief, Mmapula became something much more personal and eventually inspired a wider collection celebrating African names, women and the stories carried within them.”
Names, women and the stories they carry
For a pair: Nomsa and Matome, the two bottle portraits, side by side. Shop the collection →
How are the prints made?
“My practice is a mix of traditional and digital techniques. I work with digital illustration, collage, acrylic, watercolour, graphite and woodcut printing, often combining elements from different processes in a single piece.” Even on screen, she protects the handmade: “visible marks, uneven edges, layered textures and small imperfections.”
There is no studio routine to speak of. “I work as an art director and I’m also a mother of two, so my art is often created in the spaces between everything else.” Ideas start in photographs, notes, sketches or something she notices walking through London, and get developed at home in the evenings and at weekends. “The work is always continuing in the background. I am constantly collecting, observing and imagining the next piece.”
“The colour may catch your attention first, but I hope the person stays with you.”
What should you feel in front of one?
“I want people to feel joy, energy and human connection. I’m drawn to people with a strong sense of identity, individuality and presence, especially those who are not always represented or celebrated in mainstream imagery.”
“I want my portraits to make difference feel visible, beautiful and powerful. Someone distinctive, full of personality and impossible to overlook.”
Where do her prints look best?
“My work brings colour, warmth and personality into a space. It can become a strong focal point in a simple, neutral room, but it also sits naturally in more colourful and eclectic homes.”
She loves seeing them in living rooms, creative workspaces and hallways, “where they can become part of everyday life.” Her framing advice is simple: “A simple black or natural wood frame allows the colours and textures to stand out.” And they work in groups: “They also work beautifully when different portraits are hung together as a small collection.”
So try two or three faces in a row above a sofa or a sideboard — our gallery wall templates give you the exact measurements, and our oak and black frames are made to fit the prints.
Something you might not know
“I’m the mother of two wonderful boys, one with Down syndrome and one born with a complex heart condition. They have made inclusion deeply personal to me and changed the way I see strength, beauty and individuality. Perhaps that is also why I’m drawn to portraying people who are distinctive, full of personality and not always represented in mainstream imagery.”
Right now she is at the very beginning of a new, deeply personal collection about faith and gratitude, made after her youngest son came through three major heart surgeries. “I want the work to be joyful, bold, colourful and contemporary. I want to make art about faith that I would genuinely want to hang on my own wall.” She is also exploring how London’s diversity might enter her work — and one day hopes to take her visual world beyond prints, into textiles and wearable pieces.
The collection
Every Monyuri print, from A4 to 100×140 cm
Printed to fit our frames exactly — in oak, black or colour.
Shop MonyuriFollow Monyuri at @bymonyuri and on her website monyuri.com.