Born in Tehran, lives in England. As a graphic artist, Layla Khani works with linoleum cuts. She also runs her own design studio.

She grew up in Tehran in a family of musicians and writers, and in her youth she drew extensively and studied the old masters. Music also took its toll and she learned to play the piano.

Visually, she took strong impressions from the million city Tehran's double face of ancient culture with buildings in blue and red and modern architecture with glass and concrete skyscrapers. That duality, she believes, plays a big role in her creation and in

her view of the world.

Decisive for her was also the encounter with architecture,

sculpture and reliefs in stone on the palace buildings in the old Persian capital of Persepolis in southern Iran. Layla Khani says that in the same way as this

ancient artists and craftsmen cut and carved their reliefs in stone for 2500 years

then she now cuts her images into linoleum plates for printing into graphic images and to tell a story in the way she experienced the art in the old ruined city.

In our world of chaos and constant change, art here mediates a stabilization

sense of calm, harmony and eternity.

The landscape around Malvern in western England, where Layla Khani lives, also plays a role in her images. Malvern is situated on the edge of heavily hilly terrain with a landscape described as

"area of ​​outstanding natural beauty".

Layla Khani's original and playful variations of landscape depictions have one

color choice that she captures from the atmospheric shifts of the landscape there

each day gets its own color.