All about: the artist behind MECCA’s 2022 Holiday campaign, Nadia Hernandez

If you’re anything like me, chances are you’ve spent a good deal of time over the past couple of weeks shopping for friends and family – and naturally, also self! – at your local MECCA store. I love that they make gifting insanely easy by providing beautiful boxing and tissue that makes their already-gorgeous product line-up shine, and this year’s campaign imagery is particularly joyous.
The woman responsible for the artwork that graces the above is emerging artist, Nadia Hernández, and the collaboration is part of the brand’s annual program focusing on empowering women in the arts by working alongside the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Born in Mérida, Venezuela and currently living and working between Melbourne and Sydney, Hernández expresses her diasporic experience as a Venezuelan woman living abroad through various creative disciplines and mediums, including textiles, paper constructions, paintings, poetry, music, sculptures, installations, and murals. Bursting with colour and joy, her work celebrates culture, identity, and unity with radiating positivity.

Inspired by Hernández’s poem, Of what we are, MECCA’s 2022 Holiday campaign celebrates her notion of ‘a generous heart’, igniting kindness, connection and a reminder that generosity is the greatest expression of beauty. How wonderful is that?

MECCA Founder and Co-CEO, Jo Horgan explains, “Holiday is the time to connect with loved ones, to reflect on the year that was and to be excited about the year ahead. And more than anything, it’s a time for generosity. Nadia’s artwork is truly joyful and has sparked us with curiosity to reimagine this year’s Holiday to capture the hearts of our community and beyond”.
Hernández’s artwork is featured on 12 different variations of MECCA’s limited-edition gift boxes and bags, as well as MECCA’s signature line collections, with packaging designs for 31 Mecca Cosmetica and MECCA MAX products. Not to mention, splashed across over 100 stunning store windows in Australia and New Zealand and throughout digital content.

Hernandez joins the impressive line-up as the eighth artist that MECCA has collaborated with over the years, each as inspiring and talented as the next. “I think of my work as a language with infinite ways to describe my desire to return home,” explains Hernandez. “After finishing my studies in Australia, I felt as though I was losing a sense of my culture and identity, and I wanted to find ways to reconnect back home. So, I started making art with the intention to be present, although physically far and distant.”

Since 2016, MECCA’s partnership with the NGV is part of its philanthropic program, M-POWER, which supports the elevation of women in the arts and raises awareness around their practice. Through this unique partnership, MECCA engages female artists to create exceptional projects, such as the annual Holiday campaign.
MECCA Holiday 2022 is in stores and online now, and Hernández’s artwork also on display at NGV Australia (Federation Square, Melbourne) and ready to be enjoyed.