WORK
A SENSE OF BELONGING
2025
What: Exhibition / Pavilion / Film / Music / Dinner Experience
A week-long immersive exhibition exploring the journey of finding a “home away from home,” a fitting question for a hotel, and of rediscovering home within ourselves. Ten artists were invited to reflect on home as a place, a sense of self, or an identity, and to ask where we belong in an increasingly global, transient world.
I curated and directed the program and designed its pavilion on the hotel’s central terrace. The week brought together film, 3D art, live music, an artist panel on how the theme lived in each artist’s work, and a dinner with Nobu’s head chef. For the closing party, my producer and I named each cocktail after a step in the artist’s journey, from beginning to end, with drinks created by the mixologist.
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LA CASA ARTHOUSE
2019–2021
What: Exhibitions / Installations / Live Music / Fashion / Pop-Up Retail
Role: Co-Founder, Creative Director & Producer
An independent arthouse I co-founded to give artists a platform to show and sell their work through immersive experiences. Each of our five shows had its own theme, mixing art, film, live music, DJ sets, fashion and new technology, and together they drew 1,500+ guests entirely through word of mouth. Artists we showed early include Jean-Pierre Villafañe, Gustavo Barroso, Forma Rosa Studio and Nick Baker.
I co-curated every show with my co-founder Gonzalo Gelso and led production, from choosing the artists and installations to shaping how guests moved through the space. I also secured an in-kind sponsorship from Cerveza Monopolio, which supplied beer for several of our shows as a way to connect with the city’s cultural scene.
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BLEU L’EXCLUSIF
2025
Where: Macy’s Herald Square, Bloomingdale’s 59th Street, Chanel NYC Headquarters
What: Counter Takeover / Windows / Activation / Media Event
For the launch of Bleu L’Exclusif, the first new Bleu de Chanel formulation since the Parfum in 2018, I designed three touchpoints: retail activations with windows at Macy’s Herald Square, the busiest beauty door in the US, and Bloomingdale’s 59th Street, plus a one-day media room for interviews with perfumer Olivier Polge, transforming a conference room at Chanel’s headquarters into a residential-feeling space for press including Vogue and leading influencers.
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DENIM MAKEUP COLLECTION
2026
What: Pop-Up / Activation / PR Event
For the launch of Chanel’s limited-edition Denim Makeup Collection, I took the global team’s concept and developed it for three US Nordstrom locations, refining the 3D model and designing the details, lighting, display risers and storage. I approved the engineering drawings and oversaw production hand in hand with my procurement partner, through to installation. A key detail was a custom-printed vinyl that recreated the texture of denim across counters and fixtures. I also designed a one-day PR event at Nordstrom NYC, where a makeup artist offered complimentary walk-in makeup applications with the collection.
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© 2026 Claudia Leal