Clubhouse Selects Asian American Artist And Activist Drue Kataoka As Its Latest Icon

Renowned visual artist, technologist and social activist Drue Kataoka has been selected as the newest icon for Clubhouse, the hot new audio-only social media app. For the next several weeks, Kataoka’s face will appear as the Clubhouse logo, representing the iconic app on 13 million smartphones. She is the eighth person ever to have been selected for this role by Clubhouse, and the first visual artist and Asian American woman to be featured.

As one of Clubhouse’s earliest members since it launched in March 2020, Kataoka has leveraged her art, an impressive professional network, and an intense work ethic to raise over $100,000 in Clubhouse rooms to #StopAsianHate and—in partnership with Dr. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center—to support racial justice in a Clubhouse event named #24HoursofLove. In addition, Kataoka has been instrumental in convincing the company’s leadership team to develop and launch a new feature that allows users to donate money to causes and non-profits from within the Clubhouse app itself.

Clubhouse’s choice to feature its first visual artist-activist and female Asian American icon comes at an important time of reckoning in the United States for treatment of the Asian American community. With hate crimes against this community on the rise, Kataoka decided to harness her nearly 700,000 Clubhouse followers to host open conversations about Asian American identity, hate crimes, and racial stereotypes. Launched in a Clubhouse room, her #StopAsianHate campaign and fundraiser surpassed its initial $10,000 fundraising goal within the first hour and has raised over $90,000 for the Asian American Federation.   

As the head of one of the top art studios globally, Silicon Valley-based Drue Kataoka Studios, Kataoka is emblematic of a new wave of artists regaining their sovereignty from galleries and art institutions, seen also in trending artists like JR, Banksy, and much of the more interesting technological art community. A Stanford University graduate, she built her studio like a tech startup, outside of the gallery system. Instead, she forged direct relationships with her clients, including entrepreneurs, scientists, and venture capitalists. 

Today, Kataoka’s art has a global footprint in five continents and over 30 countries. Her portfolio includes science and technology collaborations, like the artwork she sent into space for the first “zero gravity art exhibit” at the International Space Station. Kataoka leads the art world with experimental artworks, leveraging diverse mediums including VR, EEG and mobile. She has a newly minted collection of NFTs that are about to hit the market, and her work will be included in an upcoming NFT event. She has also served as a commentator on the state of the NFT market this year.

Since its launch, Clubhouse achieved a $1 billion valuation in January and currently is seeking funding at a $4 billion valuation. It has attracted users in droves to its audio chats with high-profile appearances by celebrities, thought leaders, and prominent personalities. The platform also has emerged as a driver of social impact, with its finger on the pulse, particularly compared to other tech platforms. Kataoka is a leading representative of the app’s potential to galvanize communities for social change. In addition to fighting for racial justice, she also has a track record in the domains of women’s rights, infant mortality, and international activism. Standing at the forefront of art and technology, Kataoka founded The Art Club, Clubhouse’s biggest and oldest club dedicated to the arts. It currently has 97,000 followers.

Born in Tokyo and raised on the West Coast, Kataoka’s father is Japanese and her mother a Caucasian American. She has been named both a Cultural Leader and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and is one of the few artists to have had a solo exhibition at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos. She has spoken on the official agenda at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos four times and at WEF meetings in Tokyo, Beijing, Yangon, Ulaanbaatar, Buenos Aires, Puerto Vallarta and Geneva. She created the logo for the World Arts Forum. Her web/mobile installation TouchOurFuture was showcased at TEDWomen in Monterey. She was a keynote speaker at the Milken Institute Global Asia Summit in Singapore and the Qudwa Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Her intention as the newest icon of Clubhouse is to inspire people to use the platform for positive social change. “We were very naïve at the start of social media fifteen years ago.” Kataoka says. “But lately we have witnessed how some of these apps can take us to dark places. It is up to us, the users, where we take new and exciting, emerging platforms like Clubhouse. Social audio really gives us a fresh start, a blank slate. My hope is to work together to help create rivulets of positive change.”

While the pandemic has been challenging for Kataoka and the art world as a whole, she sees an opportunity within the crisis. “Art galleries, art institutions and even artists have been notoriously slow to adapt technology and address pressing issues of sexism and racism lying in plain sight. In 2020, many of them were finally driven to jump into tech, even if they weren’t comfortable with it, and we are also starting to have some tough conversations. While still the results are mixed, the traction in NFTs and the accompanying adoption of digital art will inevitably be a positive force, shaking up a very stale system. Hopefully, this may result in a more viable, more diverse and more just arts ecosystem. Definitely, there is more momentum for that now than there was a year ago.” 

Ever the optimist, Kataoka hopes that Clubhouse and social audio can play an important role in helping the art world make this transition. She’s excited about bringing the two together, “Art is technology and technology is art. That has been my mantra for decades.”