Palesa Monareng
I’m Palesa Monareng, a London-based Illustrator, previously working as T.S Abe
My personal practice explores my relationship with the webs emergent phenomena - from it’s vice grip on the minds eye, to homogenised beauty ideals & an oft adversarial relationship with my online ‘id’.
While my public-facing career has been defined by an ability to humanize the interface, delivering illustration & animation for The New York Times, Wealthsimple and Amazon, my internal engine has been my 20-year longitudinal self-portrait project, my private R&D lab. With my own likeness as the constant variable, I’ve explored how human identity evolves as it passes through the filters of two decades of digital transformation. The project is now a developing manuscript, represented by Janklow & Nesbit
Reach: A global digital footprint exceeding 380 million views on GIPHY, 500k+ views on Behance and a 100k+ community on Instagram
When not drawing you can find me hiking with my vizsla, Herzog, updating my LETTERBOXD and snacking on Fuet. If you have a project in mind, I’d love to hear from you.
palesa@palesamonareng.com
Client List
Selected Press
CREATIVEBOOM, INSTAGRAM, VICE, VISI, DESIGNCOLLECTOR
work with me
palesa@palesamonareng.com
Tiffany & Co.
Commissions
Portraits & animation for editorial, publishing and brand work. Clients include the New York Times, Nike, Netflix, Tiffany & Co. and Amazon.
Brand Activations
Live drawing experiences for fashion, beauty, luxury and cultural events.
I create intimate, analogue experiences that invite guests to participate, from guided self-portrait sessions to live illustration and bespoke drawing activations.
Self-Portrait Booth is my signature format: a live, guided drawing experience inspired by the spontaneity of a photo booth. Guests step in, sit down and create a self-portrait alongside me, with sessions designed to be quick, personal and highly visual.
Available for brand launches, PR events, pop-ups, fashion week, private events and experiential campaigns.
Talks
On drawing by hand in a machine-made visual culture. Craft, identity, and what twenty years of self-portraiture taught me about who we become online. For conferences, universities, and company teams.