Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck’s practice is rooted in a commitment to extending art into daily life and bringing everyday life into artistic practice. Happy to See You Again is a new zine featuring a selection of pencil and pastel drawings from Johanna’s 2024 – 2025 sketchbooks, many of which were created en plein air in just a few minutes.

These drawings portray the artist’s allotment in rural Oxfordshire and nearby gardens, evoking the joy of reunion and the quiet, playful longing that moves through the seasons – the bee's longing for a flower and the flower’s longing for the bee. A mutual longing that takes many shapes and forms: water, soil, seeds, wind, and the gardener’s longing, too, of course.

Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck (b. 1990, France) is a painter and transdisciplinary artist based in rural Oxfordshire. Her practice, rooted in ecological awareness, spans painting, sculpture, photography, publishing, horticulture, and participatory projects. Johanna’s work expresses care and tenderness, reflecting on the fragility and beauty of life. Recent solo exhibitions include Soft, Soft at Mutty, Castiglione delle Stiviere (2025), Dreaming About Tomorrow at Nidi Gallery, Tokyo (2022). Group exhibitions include Soil at Somerset House, London (2025), The Equal Right to Live and Blossom at Kate MacGarry, London (2024) and Edge Effects at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2024).

Johanna founded the collaborative initiatives Poetic Pastel Press, The Gardening Drawing Club and The Ordinary Society for Kindness to All Animals in the Art World. She co-founded the Journal du Thé – Contemporary Tea Culture publication series. Johanna has organised and facilitated workshops and learning programs for adults and children at multiple British art institutions and international independent cultural hubs, including Camden Art Centre and Garden Museum.