Portrait No. 001
Drue Kataoka
Founder & CEO
Drue Kataoka Studios
I started Drue Kataoka Studios from scratch in 2000 when the world didn’t believe that the Bay Area could sustain a world-class independent fine arts studio. While the global creative conversation was centered around New York, I knew Silicon Valley was not just a tech hub, it would be the future cultural epicenter of the world & I wanted to be a part of it. Fast forward to today--my team and I have shipped art to some of the world’s top collectors in over 30 countries, collaborated with Nobel laureates, astronauts and sent two artworks into space. I’ve contributed 1 million+ USD to charitable causes through my many philanthropic efforts leveraging the art I created. One example is “Will Your Heart Pass the Test?” my collaboration with Disney, LucasFilm, Industrial Light & Magic Immersive. We auctioned the artwork at Philips NYC and I donated $252,000 to social justice causes.
In her words
“My legacy is to create immortal artworks, that, like time capsules into the future, far outlive us. Given the trajectory of AI advancement, my art is designed with both a biological and non-biological intelligence in mind.”
Chapter I
The toughest challenges you've faced as a founder.
I gave birth twice, only 18 months apart. When the babies were 2 under 2, I joked each one was an additional startup to the company I already run. Now they’re 2 and 3, and it’s a superhuman feat to be a mom, fly around the world to speak and exhibit my AI technology artworks—whether in Geneva, Singapore, or Los Angeles—and still care for my team in Silicon Valley. The second birth led to complications leaving me in the hospital for weeks. I’m proud to have been an advocate for women through projects that raised international awareness for issues ranging from infant mortality to the rape kit backlog. Today, my art studio is among those leading the global conversation on visual generative AI. I received the Women in GenAI Innovator Award for 2025, and my AI works have been featured at the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills and the MasterCard Global Summit in Washington, D.C. I’m proud of the moments I was working from a hospital bed or pumping breast milk in an airport. Being a mother in the age of AI gives me a unique lens on what the future demands: leaders who integrate intellect and empathy.
Chapter II
Your vision.
I’m obsessed with solving the invisibility of women, mothers, and underrepresented voices in the future of AI technology and global culture. As AI reshapes how we create, communicate, and lead, too many perspectives are still excluded, from the datasets to the stages of global summits. Through my art studio, I’m building a future where visual generative AI is a medium for empathy, storytelling, and impact. Our work blends high-tech innovation with deep cultural narrative, pushing boundaries in both art and ethics. We collaborate with scientists, astronauts, and institutions, but always with one foot grounded in lived human experience. The change I want to see: a world where creativity, diversity, and meaning are not afterthoughts in AI, but core to how it evolves. We’re not waiting for that future. In fact, we’re building it, one provocative artwork, one conversation-shifting installation at a time.
Chapter III
The impact you want to leave behind — for your industry, your community, and the women who come next.
One question I love to ask: how would you like to be remembered in 10 years, 100 years, 1,000 years, even 10,000 years? Up to this point, art is humanity’s most powerful technology for transmitting meaning across time. It compresses our best ideas, deepest hopes, and boldest dreams into time capsules that outlive us. My legacy is to create art that shapes how future generations understand our moment, especially the voices of women and mothers in the age of AI. I want that signal of truth and beauty to endure, long after the noise fades.