Drue Kataoka is an artist-technologist-activist & CEO of Drue Kataoka Art Studios LLC (www.Drue.Net), serving some of the world’s top collectors in 5 continents & over 30 countries. She creates commissioned artworks in both material art genres such as steel sculpture and painting as well as virtual reality. Drue is known for her signature interactive and reflective visual mazes and experiences, which distort the perception of space-time. Her artwork Up! was featured in the first zero gravity art exhibit at the International Space Station. She is Artist in Residence for Google VR (Tilt Brush).
Named a Young Global Leader & Cultural Leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF), Drue presented a solo exhibition at the WEF in Davos and has presented at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016. She is currently a member of the WEF’s 2018 Steering Committee on VR/AR/AI for the Creative Economy and is a contributing author to the book Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Drue has been invited to speak in Tokyo, New York, St. Petersburg, Necker Island, British Virgin Islands, Buenos Aires, Oslo, Ulaanbaatar, Abu Dhabi, Yangon, Beijing, Geneva, Puerto Vallarta and more for multiple organizations, corporations and governments.
Drue’s piece “400,000 Is Not a Number” helped shine a light on the backlog of 400,000 untested rape kits waiting for justice, and her “Touch Our Future” digital tapestry drew the attention & participation of dozens of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates and heads of state to help reduce infant mortality. Only 24 hours after its creation, Drue’s portrait of British M.P. and humanitarian Jo Cox was carried by tens of thousands of people in Trafalgar Square, Batley, Dublin, Buenos Aires, New York, Washington DC, and many other cities, as a symbol of our shared humanity.
The tragic events of 9-11 provoked Drue to endow a youth scholarship through the sale of one of her artworks. Since 2001, 24 student recipients have benefitted from The Rotary Drue Kataoka Art Scholarship.
Drue’s art has been featured on CNN, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, CNBC, CBS, ABC, FoxNews, NY1, Telemundo, Barrons, Wired, Blackbook, Gentry and others. Graduate of Stanford University. Recipient of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute Award for her extensive community service.
