Anika Leila: Exploring Humanity through Upcyled Art

Anika Leila is forging the path of sustainable practices in art. Crafting her work by repurposing waste, the artist and designer creates beauty out of expired make-up products. The 27-year-old has a playful, otherworldly aesthetic, rooted in finding.

The sentiment behind her practice shines through every piece—an emphasis on kindness, humanity, and a tangible attempt to sustain the world and protect it comes through in her colourful paintings. Featuring faces and what can be described as evocative and surreal images of human emotion, Leila’s signature series of “fantastical faces” presents a range of emotions that one rarely sees so tenderly produced through abstract art. Looking closely, we find timidity, joy, manipulation, and what looks like expressions of disgust. Her work feels like expressions of both macro and micro emotion, the grey areas of sentiment, with pastel colours and oil paint.

Drawn from a childhood game she used to play, Leila’s faces put her work on the map. More recently, she worked with clothing, refashioning scrap fabric to produce a custom dress. When speaking to Leila, it is clear that this is her broader vision for the creative scene and the world. Like much of the content of her art, her process reflects an earnest attempt to reduce waste, through what she describes as an attempt to “find emotion in the forgotten and remind people that even what’s overlooked can still hold beauty and meaning.” 

Based in London, Leila also draws from the dynamics of the city’s landscape. “It’s layered, imperfect, and endlessly inspiring. My work reflects that, using everyday materials to tell stories about beauty, identity, and waste in a city that’s constantly evolving.” In the same vein, Leila cites her inspiration as everyday embodiments of kindness and humanity. “I’m inspired by real people who are kind and trying their best.” 

The intimacy and quiet innovation of Leila’s process are what make her artistry so powerful. By making art that reminds us there is beauty in the discarded, she implores audiences to look inward and recentre themselves in kindness and humanity. In an increasingly overwhelming world, Leila’s values as an artist remain simple: “I want to keep creating, collaborating, and reshaping how people see sustainability. I want to build spaces where art feels human again.”