The Art of Acumen

Artist Drue Kataoka makes art for disrupters, and she tells Hong Xinyi how she has figured out an unconventional way to do it

e met artist drue kataoka at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore late last year, where her blunt black bob and striking dress made her easy to spot in the sea of conference attendees clad in bland office attire. But this is no token bohemian making a corporate cameo. Named a Young Global Leader and Cultural Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2012, Drue’s business savvy is just as informed by creativity as her art is. Born to a Japanese father and American mother, she spent her early years in Tokyo before moving to the US, where she attended Stanford University in California. The school is renowned for its close ties to the California tech hub known as Silicon Valley, and that culture of innovation was alluring to her. “I believe Silicon Valley is the Athens, Florence, Paris and New York of today,” says Drue, who remains based there. “It’s an incredible geyser of energy, of creativity, that’s bubbling up all the time. New technologies that are shaping our world are continually being birthed there. If you want to catch a glimpse of the future of anything, it is the place to look.” Having been surrounded by classmates intent on building disruptive start-ups, she took a very different approach to life as an artist. Instead of being represented by a gallery, she is the CEO of the Drue Kataoka Art Studios, where she works with a team whose skill sets range from computer-aided design to artisanal crafts. Moreover, over two-thirds of her works are created on commission. “It’s a direct-to-consumer model,” she explains briskly. “There’s no middleman, so I pass that value on to the collector. I’m not holding a crazy amount of inventory, and I get to work with the people I want to work with.” She spends considerable time with clients to understand them better, before creating a proposal of what she would like to make for them. “And most of the time, we go forward with that initial proposal.” Why spurn the gallery model? Besides her belief that hefty gallery commission fees are unsustainable for artists, Drue also prefers to manage client relationships herself rather than cede that control to the galleries. In her experience, she adds, collectors also enjoy being involved in the creation process of the artworks they buy. Her preferred business model actually harkens back to a more traditional idea of patronage. Take the Medici clan of Renaissance Italy, whose wealth stemmed from their banking business. By commissioning work from the likes of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci, they helped to chart the course of art history. “There were many bankers during that time, but we still remember the Medicis because of the incredible art they enabled which has stood the test of time,” says Drue. “It’s inspiring to think not only about the artists of that time, but also about the patrons who had the vision and foresight to help bring extraordinary, ambitious works into the world.” She has been building ties with collectors in Latin America, Europe and Asia, but many of her clients remain Silicon Valley technologists who like the artwork in their environment to stimulate their creativity. “They like the interactive nature of a lot of the things I do.” For example, her latest sculptures are called Ambrosias (pictured opposite with Drue) and “where and how you stand around these artworks are important, because the work changes depending on your perspective”, she elaborates. “I like the idea of art that is dynamic, changing, and unique, like a living thing.” Perhaps the contemplative nature of these works also reflects the influence of the Zen philosophy, which informs Silicon Valley in a subtle but distinct way. The most famous example, of course, is Steve Jobs, whose interest in Zen shaped his conception of Apple’s minimalist product design. “Many influential leaders in Silicon Valley are deeply knowledgeable about the Zen philosophy. It’s not always a central part of their public personas, but it drives a lot of their thinking,” Drue reveals. “The Silicon Valley spirit is a hard thing to pin down, but there’s an aesthetic component to it. Tech products are notoriously complex, and time and time again, the ones that succeed are those that deliver clarity and simplicity.”