[WHO I AM]
KAT VANCLEAVE IS AN AN AWARD-WINNING ARTIST, FILMMAKER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR BASED IN NEW YORK.
To date, I’ve helmed the designs of 40+ films including feature films, short films, TV pilots, web-series, music videos and branded content. I’ve had the esteemed honor to collaborate with industry leaders like Destry Allyn Spielberg, HBO, Apple, Google, NVIDIA, & Gensler to name a few.
While moonlighting as an architectural designer in 2015, I spent 3 months in the Himalayas designing the primary residence for Their Majesties, The King & Queen of Bhutan. I know, real life #queenstatus
These days, a lot of my time is spent in a film studio, but I’ve been a studio rat my whole life. As a dancer, the studio meant perseverance, discipline and grace. This is where I fell in love with movement, the human body & our ability to transform a single gesture into a compelling story. This obsession bled naturally into the architectural studio, where I learned to craft our built environments with tools like rhythm, form, shape, and color to articulate intimacy and narrative at the level of the human experience. It’s also where I was first introduced to Commedia Dell’Arte which, in retrospect, is one of the springboards that led to a soft spot for parody & satire that you’ll see in my screenplays & films today.
But my first real teacher was Mama Earth. As a Colorado kid, the mountains taught me the power of scale, the magical quality of light as it kisses the horizon & the most delicious shade of powdery white snow. It made me feel tiny but a part of something big. It made me hungry for adventure, taught me how to play hard & gifted me with a certain fearlessness of getting my hands dirty. Nature also wedged me smack dab in the middle of my family, transforming me into a natural negotiator & an invested collaborator from the jump.
I’m nothing if not in motion & I invite you to share the next dance…
[how i art]
MY CREATIVE ECOSYSTEM
[FEATURED PROJECT]
BUILDING DREAMS & IMAGINARIUMS
PROMPT ENGINEERING, WORLD BUILDING & CREATIVE DIRECTION XKAT
AI GENERATED IMAGES BY KAT FROM AN INVENTED WORLD CALLED ABSURDOS
[SERVICES OFFERED]
A MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST THAT WORKS WITH INDIVIDUALS & BRANDS IN THE REAL AND MAKE-BELIEVE
WORLD BUILDING Designing rich, textured environments that extend beyond aesthetics—creating spaces where stories, brands, characters, and emotions feel truly alive. Think of this as the physical manifestation of script, brand and identity design, a big ‘ole design hug that envelops the universe you have created.
MISE-EN-SCÈNE On-set art direction : Crafting visually striking, emotionally charged film & photography compositions through intentional design, color, and spatial storytelling — basically everything the camera and audience can see. This includes production design, lighting and color palettes, composition and framing, costume and character styling, prop selection/fabrication & on-set direction.
CREATIVE IN RESIDENCE 6-month long immersive creative collaboration to shape bold, distinctive, brand specific narratives across film, editorial, and experiential projects. I partner with your brand to craft a dynamic, multi-sensory narrative—developing cinematic stories, transformative installations, and innovative culinary experiences that together redefine your brand's identity and deeply engage your audience.
FILM DIRECTION Crafting every morsel of a bespoke cinematic experiences. Shaped through script writing, concept development, casting, creative direction, and logistical prowess, this is the Pièce de résistance of my narrative work. You get all the artistic, visual goods plus performance, branding and marketing chops to back it up.
EXPERIENTIAL Transform your brand’s digital persona into a captivating, real-world narrative. Through immersive pop-up events and interactive installations, our experiential design service creates tangible, multi-sensory environments that blend the real with the imagined. With a deep-rooted expertise in art, filmmaking, and production design, we craft bespoke experiences that invite audiences to engage, explore, and connect with your luxury brand in an unforgettable, dynamic journey.
WORLD BUILDING XKAT FOR ‘SILENT NOTES’ FEATURE LENGTH FILM
LET’S GET CREATIVE TOGETHER
[the vibes i bring to the function]
ALL HAIL THE WEIRD + WONDERFUL.
Bringing artists together is sooooo my thing.
I’m drawn to the absurd and avant-garde, and I thrive in spaces where reality bends, emotions distort, and the surreal collides with the deeply human. I gravitate towards morally ambiguous characters, unsettling beauty & complicated themes that explore the messiness of being alive.
My work blends bold production design and immersive world-building using the language of dreams and surrealism to create playful unease and contradictions that tap into our collective open wounds. I like to work in spaces and with artists that can often be underrepresented, but I also like to take common themes and twist them into the grotesque or absurd to reveal universal truths in unusual, often over-the-top ways.
A common motif in my work is food & food politics. Maybe it’s the Italian half of me or maybe its the 4million hours I’ve spent in the hospitality industry as a working artist, but I love to exploit this simple yet highly sensorial element. Food is a primal, universal language—one that carries history, power, and emotion. Whether it’s an extravagant feast, a humble meal, or a fantastic display of excess, I use food as both a visual and narrative tool to explore themes of desire, consumption, class, and identity. By pushing it to extremes—decadent, gluttonous, or even macabre—I aim to spotlight the tensions and contradictions in our relationship with what nourishes us, both literally and metaphorically.
THE ARTISTS HAVE LANDED, and I AM SO HERE FOR IT.
[PRESS]
STREET CRED
