A Decade Of Beauty & Art—Karen Black × MECCA
Karen Black brings colour and connection to MECCA’s 2025 Holiday campaign, marking the tenth NGV Holiday Artist collaboration—a milestone that continues MECCA’s M-POWER commitment to championing women in the arts.
Photos COURTESY OF MECCA
‘It’s incredibly special to see my work come to life in this way—to move from the studio into people’s everyday lives,’ says Karen Black.
From gift wrap to limited-edition pieces, every detail in the MECCA holiday collection is elevated with artistry.
For this milestone year, Karen Black brings her expansive approach to painting and sculpture, layering portraiture, abstraction and figuration to conjure worlds alive with colour, movement and emotion.
The 2025 MECCA Holiday campaign invites customers to unwrap wonder, discover artistry in the everyday, and find beauty all around—inside, outwards, upside down.
‘I hope that when people see or unwrap these pieces, they feel inspired to create, to share, and to find beauty all around them,’ says Karen Black.
“I’ve always been drawn to women’s stories, their resilience, their energy, and the balance between strength and vulnerability. To have those ideas translated into MECCA’s world of beauty feels deeply connected to what I paint about—colour, emotions, and memories.”
For Karen Black, colour carries powerful symbolism: red can give energy and love, while blue embodies reflection.
Themes and motifs run throughout the collection, ensuring every ribbon, box, and fold becomes part of an artistic celebration.
Marking a decade of MECCA and National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) collaboration, Karen Black has been named the 2025 MECCA Holiday Artist—a milestone that continues MECCA’s M-POWER commitment to championing women in the arts.
Known for her evocative approach to painting and sculpture, Karen moves fluidly between portraiture, abstraction, and figuration—her work alive with emotion and connection. In her hands, colour becomes a language: red, a note of energy and love; blue, a moment of reflection. For MECCA’s Beauty All Around campaign, she extends that language beyond the canvas, translating her sensibility into the textures and details of the holiday season.
The campaign centres on Beauty All Around: every touchpoint; wrapping, limited editions, packaging—treated with intention and craft. In-store, Karen’s brushstrokes and symbols thread through collectible boxes, installations, and windows, so each gift reads as a small act of art. The result is immersive and understated: beauty expressed as ritual, art experienced in the everyday.
Karen’s connection to MECCA is one that has evolved naturally. Her work first entered the brand’s orbit in 2022, when MECCA’s art curator Charlotte Day acquired several of her paintings for its growing in-store collection, including You Are My Philodendron (Climbing) and The Solo(ist). Hanging in spaces from Mosman to Melbourne’s Bourke Street Aesthetica Lounge, those works have since become part of MECCA’s visual identity—an intersection of art, retail, and daily life that now extends into this creative partnership.
The 2025 campaign reimagines key works such as The Solo(ist), Drawing the Line, and It’s Not Real, their gestures and palettes finding new expression across MECCA’s seasonal offering. ‘It’s incredibly special to see my work come to life in this way — to move from the studio into people’s everyday lives. I’ve always been drawn to women’s stories, their resilience, their energy, and the balance between strength and vulnerability. To have those ideas translated into MECCA’s world of beauty feels deeply connected to what I paint about—colour, emotions, and memories. I hope that when people see or unwrap these pieces, they feel inspired to create, to share, and to find beauty all around them,’ says Karen.
Beyond the campaign, MECCA has also funded the acquisition of Black’s Glider (2024) for the NGV’s permanent collection, ensuring her work continues to inspire beyond the season. Together, MECCA and the NGV reaffirm a decade-long vision: beauty not as surface, but as a form of storytelling—colour, connection, and culture woven into the fabric of daily life.
Karen Black’s artwork will feature across MECCA’s 2025 Holiday campaign, from collectible gift boxes, bags and cards to MECCA’s limited-edition sets. The campaign launches on 14 October 2025 in store and online.
