LAIA CABRERA
New York - Barcelona
Film and Video Artist and Visual Designer
Laia Cabrera is a visionary filmmaker and video artist from Catalonia, Lleida and based in New York and critically recognized director and multimedia creator, working in the fields of projection mapping design, video art, documentary and immersive art installations, with many projects straddling or blending elements of both fields. Ms. Cabrera is recognized for innovative interdisciplinary work which merges cinematic and digital arts, dance, music, theater and visual arts with pieces performed at leading venues, inaugurating arts festivals and installed in museums.
Recipient of many awards including Individual Artist Fellowship Grant awards 2023 by Jersey City Arts & Culture Trust Fund, the Silver Telly Award for Best Direction (Highest Distinction), AVA and Telly awards for best Animation, Documentary and Art Direction; NYIT awards 2015 winner for Best Art Production, Motion Award 2021 Nominee in the category "Interactive/Experiential - Installation", #Hybrid Vision Panasonic Digital Art Competition 2022 Nominee for Interactive Digital Art, and three-times NYIT nominee for Outstanding Innovative visual design, and winner of the Kodak & Color Lab award for Best Cinematic film for “Under Influence” presented in festivals worldwide. She is also the recipient of the several grants both in Europe and the USA including the KrTU Creators Prize awarded by the Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia, the CONCA Grant from the National Council of the Arts and Culture in Catalonia, the New York State Council on the Arts, and DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities among others.
She is currently the artistic director of the film & Multimedia company LAIA CABRERA & CO co-founded with French animator Isabelle Duverger, a team of film, animators and visual artists producing a wide range of multimedia projects and recently won the Silver Telly Award for Best Direction for “I AM” a short documentary featured in Vogue. She also curated and directed award winning multi-media international art shows and more. Former member of the Board of Directors of Topia Arts Center, Adams, MA and an advisory board member at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and director of their annual film documentary. She graduated from the Conservatoire of Barcelona, Spain, and earned an MFA in Audiovisual Communication and a BFA in Media Studies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. She also has a Master in Film Production at The New School University, NY.
She just finished "Qualia - You Matter to Me", an immersive cinematic art installation presented at the Prelude Festival 2023 and JCAST, and her latest immersive interactive art installation "Dream-e-scape" cosigned with Isabelle Duverger, has been selected for the Film Criticism Forum 2023 in Riyadh, after being presented in Los Angeles at Flutter Art Gallery and Microwave Media Arts Festival in Hong Kong. Prior works include "Close-up - Primer Pla" immersive videoart installation presented at the Coral Gable Museum in Miami, and in Washington DC, Jersey City, and New York, "Within Reach", an interactive art installation about transformation, reconnecting with the origin, nature and our relationship to it (Art Wall Coolvines Powerhouse, 2020) . Their previous interactive installations include "Illusion", a video and sound immersive interactive art installation at Flutter Experience Art Gallery (Los Angeles, 2019-2020); “The Now” at the Coolture Impact, Port Authority Bus Terminal (Times Square, New York, 2018-2020), the largest interactive public art of its kind, using virtual reality and gesture-responsive video-art, illustration and animation, exploring transitory spaces and unseen parallel realities as you walk, move and point to the different storylines and “Self on the Shelf”, presented in Times Square at the Armory Arts Week-SPRING/BREAK Art Show New York 2018 and rated one of the best shows of the venue. It is an immersive interactive video mapping and sound Installation exploring the conflicts of otherness and the nature of belonging, by bringing a child’s bedroom to life while the space reacts to the visitors’ actions.
Her film-art work installation credits include “St. Jordi in New York: Dragons & Books & Roses” a large-scale projection mapping installation in which architecture, drawn illustrations, animations and movement come together in a visual celebration of literature and the legend of Sant Jordi in the heart of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York; "Is There an Edge of Belief?" (International multidisciplinary art festival Jaen en Femenino, Spain and Bienal International ULA 2010, Merida, VENEZUELA, etc), ”Singularity" (inaugurated the International video animation festival Animac, Lleida, Spain) and "Shifting Gaze", a Film-Art-Music Installation, premiered at Spain Art Fest'10 in Times Square, NY, (October 2010), was presented as a video installation at the Region Ø Latino Video Art Festival of New York 2011 and toured in 2012 with screenings worldwide, and was selected for the festival Georgetown Glow as a large scale outdoor installation on the C&O Canal, Washington DC, in 2015.
Her work includes traditional and experimental filmmaking, multimedia shows and interactive video-mapped site-specific installations, such as "Aire", a site-specific Multimedia Installation Performance Concert presented at the Tempietto Di Bramante (Rome, Italy, 2014) and on the Facade of the Bank of America Neo-Classic Building, Art All Night, (Washington DC, 2015), and in 2016 as a large scale 5000 sq/ft 3D projection mapping and live concert performed by an ensemble orchestra at the Underwear Factory, Poughkeepsie, Hudson Valley New York, sponsored by Art Mid Hudson, NYSCA; “La Noche/The Night” Video mapped Installation designed for the Amster Yard, an interior garden at the Instituto Cervantes New York, commissioned by The Instituto Cervantes NYC 2016; “Taksu” Alexandra Mor Tagua Seed collection and Bali journey documentary directed by Laia Cabrera premiered in Vogue, NYC 2017; "Untitled Mind" a Film for installation and indoor and outdoor cinematic exhibition, directed and presented as a multilayered mapping projection design at the Wonder Bread Factory Nuit Blanche DC (Washington DC, 2013); Multimedia Show "Ronensbourgh" virtual theater and projection design at IATI Theater (NYC, 2015); "Night" by American playwright Charles Mee, multimedia show and projection design at the Theater for the New City (NYC, 2015); “City In Motion” video mapped installation commissioned by Reebok, White Box Gallery, SoHo, (NYC, 2014); "Cosmicomics" by author Italo Calvino, immersive projection design installation at Dixon Place (NYC, 2014) and "Garden of Delights" by Fernando Arrabal, a Multimedia Theater Play by The New Stage Theater Company Theater of The New City, (NYC 2012); "Pikolinos" Site Specific Video Mapping Installation, Meatpacking District (NYC, 2013 - listed as the 10 best designed stores in the world); "Landscapes of the Soul" multimedia visual concert, La Mama (NYC 2012); "Resonant Streams" Audience-interactive multimedia installation performance in St John The Divine Cathedral (NYC, part of "The Value of Water' exhibition, 2011), "Mapping Moebus" multimedia theater play, La Mama (NYC, 2010); "Monegros-Nueva York" video installation held at La Lonja (Zaragoza, Spain, 2011); "Walk Pasa Bouge" Video-Performance-Concert in collaboration with LORROJO Cia presented in New York and Brussels (2009-2011); "Playing Equality" (Dance-theater-Video), Boricua College of New York, (November 2009), Festival Internacional 'ReACT' Valencia, (Spain. May 2010); "New York" video-installation at the Institut d'Estudis Ilerdencs (Lleida, Spain, 2009) and "Claim your Place" (Barcelona/New York/Toulouse 2010), a large-scale video-installation-performance presented in the USA and Europe with the support of CAER and CAET and CONCA.
She is also an award-winning visual effects artist, director, editor, writer, playwright and composer, she also edited "Cachao: Uno Mas" with Andy Garcia (PBS's American Master, 2010) among many others. Her work in film, video, and visual production has been presented in Europe, the USA and Latin America and commissioned by the New Radio and Performing Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Spain Culture New York - Consulate General of Spain, Spain Arts and Culture, the Austrian Cultural Forum, the King Juan Carlos Center at NYU, the New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Arts International, among some other major institutions.
Laia Cabrera work has been awarded and featured internationally in landmarks like the Tempietto di Bramante in Rome, the historic Georgetown Canal in Washington, D.C., St. John the Divine Cathedral, Times Square, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), TimeCenter at the New York Times and the White Box Art Gallery in New York.
ISABELLE DUVERGER
New York - Paris
Visual and Multimedia Artist
Isabelle Duverger
Visual Artist
Isabelle Duverger is an award-winning French painter and installation artist based in New York, working between the US and Europe. She is a graduate of Estienne School of Art in graphic communications in Paris. She also has a MBA in Arts Management from Audencia Nantes, France and ASB, Aarhus, Denmark. She is the cofounder of Laia Cabrera & Co. created in 2010, and her expertise is in animation, videography and projection mapping. Her work includes paintings, public art with projection mapping on buildings, immersive interactive video and sound installations, projection art for theater and dance, video-art and animation.
"We live in a connected world, where inspiration comes from our surrounding, whether it is emotions, the physical environment, people. It is a constant feed, and I try to be a translator. My work ranges from paintings to immersive interactive installations and the pursuit of new languages through technology. A lot of my work revolves around the observation of patterns, imaginary landscapes and how the human presence interacts in it."
As a painter, she has exhibited and sold her work throughout the USA and the UK. her work is mostly figurative, most of them portraying the embrace of two women. Her work is focused on the relationship between emotions and body language.
As an installation artist, she inaugurated the world's largest video interactive public art installation "The Now" (Port Authority Bus Terminal, Times Square, New York), she cosigned with Laia Cabrera the interactive immersive video and sound art installations "Dream-e-scape" (Flutter Experience Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 2022-2023; Microwave Media Arts Festival, Honk Kong City Hall, 2022; Film Criticism Conference, Riyadh, KSA, 2023), "Within Reach" (Art Wall Coolvines Powerhouse, Jersey City, 2020), "Illusion" (Flutter Experience Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 2019-2020), and "Self on the Shelf" (Spring Break Art Show 2018, as part of the Armory Arts Week, New York).
Her immersive video art installations include "Qualia - You Matter to Me" (Prelude Festival NYC 2023), "Close-Up / Primer Pla" (Sant Jordi Festival 2022), public art projection mapping installations include "Untitled Mind" (Nuit Blanche-Art All Night, Washington DC, 2013), "City In Motion" curated by Reebok Creative Lab (2014), a one-year video installation with Mapping for the Pop-Up Store Pikolinos in the Meatpacking district (NYC, 2013), the installations-performances "Aire" (Tempietto di Bramante Roma, Italy, 2014, Art All Night Washington DC, 2015, Poughkeepsie, 2016), "Walk-Pasa-Bouge" (New York - Brussels, 2009-2011), "Claim Your Place" (Centro Español NYC - Tournefeuille, France, 2010), "Shifting Gaze" (Spain Art Fest '10, Times Square, New York, 2010, Region Ø, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center of NYU, 2011, Georgetown Glow, Washington DC, 2015) and "Resonant Streams" (The Value of Water series in the Cathedral Saint John The Divine, New York, 2011).
She often collaborates as projection mapping artist and illustrator/animator for performance and theater plays such as "People Place Disruption" and "Falling Sky" in collaboration with Nimbus Dance (NJPAC, 2019 & 2021), "Lines in the Dust" by Nikkole Salter "Trojan Women" by Euripides and "Prologue" by Maria Litvan (JCTC, 2018-2019), "Sincronizada" by Mar Gómez Glez (Teatro Del Canal, Festival Talent Madrid Finalist, 2016, MicroTeatro, Madrid, Spain, 2017), “Alerleirauh” (Alvin Ailey Theater, NYC, 2023), "Mapping Mobius" (La Mama Theater, NYC, 2010), "Road to Happiness" (Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC, 2011), "Garden of Delights" (Theater for the New City, NYC, 2012), "Cosmicomics", by Italo Calvino (Dixon Place, NYC, 2014; New Stage Performance Space, NYC, 2022), "La Jaula Bajo El Trapo" (King Juan Carlos Center of NYU, NYC, 2008), "Playing Equality" (NYC, 2009 and Valencia, Spain, 2010), "Night" by Charles Mee, (Theater For the New City, NYC, 2015), "Ronensbourgh" by Beatriz Cabur (IATI theater, NYC, 2015), "The Dark Stone" by Alberto Conejero (Repertorio Español, NYC, 2022), "Emilie" by Radegund Hain (TNC, 2015), "Else & Henry" by Puy Navarro (Espacio Inestable, Valencia, Spain, 2017 and Teatro El Extranjero, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2022) among others.
She recently created the short films "The Way to WIN" for Women in Need (Animation, 2021), "Micro-Universe" (Video Art, 2020), “Distance to the Moon” written by Italo Calvino (Animation, 2018), a docu-animation for the Center for Popular Democracy (Animation, 2017), the opening and closing credits of the feature film "White Alligator" (2012), animations for the short film "Is there an edge of Belief?" (Jaen Femenino, Spain 2009 - Biennale of Art of Venezuela, Merida, 2010) and the music video "All I Wanna Do" by Erica Glyn. She created the online interactive platform the for online festival Sant Jordi NYC and Sant Jordi USA.
Isabelle Duverger is an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant awards Jersey City Arts & Culture Trust Fund
2023 fellow, Hybrid Vision - Panasonic Digital Art Nominee, Shanghai, China in the category "Interactive/Experiential - Installation", Motion Award Nominee, three-time New York Innovative Theater Awards nominee for Outstanding Innovative Design (Projection Design, Video-Art and Animations) in 2015 for "Night" at the Theater for the New City, in 2014 for "Cosmicomics" at Dixon Place, and in 2013 for "Garden of Delights" at the Theater for the New City, 2013, and 2015 NYIT award winner for "Night" Outstanding Performance Art Production with the New Stage Theatre Company. She is also the recipient of the AVA and Telly Awards for Outstanding Animation and Outstanding Art Direction.
Her work has been presented in renowned venues such as Spring/Break Art Show (Armory Arts Week), Central Park Summer Stages, Times Square Plaza and St John the Divine Cathedral, La Mama, Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in New York, NJPAC, Flutter Experience Art Gallery, Los Angeles, Nuit Blanche and Georgetown Glow, Washington DC, Teatros del Canal, Madrid and Fabra i Coats Contemporary Art Center, Barcelona, Spain and Tempietto Di Bramante, Roma, Italy, Hong Kong City Hall among others.