mela x artist edition
Acting Together - Our Artist Editions
Mela is Hindi and means "acting together".
True to this motto, we work with selected artists and offer them a platform for their creative messages. They enrich our collections with their artworks. Discover our limited artist editions from our current and past collections .
spring / summer 2025
mela x kaja meyer
Kaja Meyer's (Danish, lives in Hamburg, Germany) work takes place in the sensations of becoming and passing away.
How entities - such as individuals, animals, different components of nature, colors, shapes - change, form and react to one another in context. Dreams, ideas, desires come together in intuitive processes in her drawings and paintings. All times are seamless.
We live in the gap between the moment of passing away and the moment of arising. At the same time, we put down roots and pull them up.
It is a physical process, an ongoing process, a movement. The body collects the fleeting parts around it - impressions and fragments that it weaves together anew. Joy and curiosity are present in Kaja's work, both as a method and as a theme.
interview
What inspired you to create the designs printed on the T-shirts and what are general sources of creativity for you?
Most of the time I am in the mood to draw and paint flowers, just as I always feel like eating something. These motifs come from a series that began with a single flower for a dear friend. I kept painting flowers thinking of the people I would like to give them to. In this way, they are little meals for myself and for someone close to me, or an indirect portrait. This is a recurring interest of mine: basic elements - like stones, shells, worms, eggs, roots, smoke - in ambiguous environments. I am interested in what I don't understand, but what also feels like a truth. You see a flower, but in reality it is a feeling, a sensation.
What are your favorite techniques/materials to work with?
I don't have a specific technique, but I've found ways that feel like me. Most of all, I like to keep changing materials, mixing them up, and constantly changing my mind. Each material has its own agenda, as if it has an opinion on the work we're doing. Colored pencils, ink, loose pigments, oil pastels, and acrylics. I like to use the material in a way that feels natural and easy. I tend to draw quite hard and I'm realizing I need to take better care of my hands. Over the summer, I want to get back into monotype, drypoint, and casein tempera painting, which require a lot of steps and somehow remind me of cooking.
Thank you for letting us visit your studio! What does your studio mean to you?
I just moved from one studio to another, so I haven't really settled in yet. This is very close to home, I walk right by the water here (we're on an Elbe island), and I'm very grateful to have that in my everyday life.
Is there a little fun fact about yourself that you would like to share?
For almost 9 years, a friend and I have been planning to do fan art about the incredible chair in the Britney Spears "Stronger" music video. The person is an abstract artist. I doubt we'll ever follow through on the plan, but I can't stop thinking about how we would do it and it brings me so much joy!
MELA
artist editions
fall / winter 2024
mela x Maggie Stephenson
Born in Poland and raised in Germany, artist Maggie lives in Florida, USA. Inspired by human connections and nature, she combines vibrant colors, flowing shapes and diverse textures. Her works depict confident, carefree women in harmony with nature and embody powerful femininity. "I'm lucky to have been surrounded by many wonderful women in my life. In the end, it's the sense of community and positivity that I value so much," says Maggie.
Life is a constant ebb and flow, a continuous movement of changes, of moments that flow into the next. In all these fluid experiences, the power lies in the present moment. The motif conveys the feeling of belonging to this moment.
spring/summer 2024
MELA x Kruttika
Kruttika Susarla is an illustrator and cartoonist from the South Indian region of Andhra Pradesh . Kruttika's unique style is heavily influenced by her Indian roots and culture.
In her work she addresses social, political and literary topics, from comics to dogs, crows and leeches, to part-time jobs in the gig economy or toolkits for NGOs.
Fall / Winter 2023
MELA x Anjali Mehta
Anjali is a New Delhi-based artist and illustrator who draws scenes from modern day life. Her expressive illustrations are brought to life through the strong use of pigments and patterns. Anjali is inspired by strong women, books and travel.
Anjali: “I want my audience to reflect on their own experiences, connect with my work and finish the story I started.”
spring / summer 2023
MELA x Ilki Kocer
Ilknur Koçer “Ilki” is an artist and illustrator.
Born and raised in a village near Kassel, Ilki discovered her passion for art and stories and developed it further during her studies in visual communication with a focus on comics and illustration.
In her work she writes and draws stories about interference and deals with migration, racism and feminism.
Together with Ilki, Mela successfully designed and produced the first Artist Edition.
The tiger print has a special meaning because for us the tiger stands for power and strength, but also symbolically for resistance and the courage to oppose the status quo.