Bio
Akanksha Somani is a New York–based multidisciplinary artist and emerging production designer working across film, theatre, fine art, and immersive environments. She is completing her BFA in Studio Art at New York University, with minors in Film and Integrated Design & Media.
Her experience spans production design, scenic design, cinematography, and producing, with projects ranging from independent films to Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana and Tisch New Theatre's Fun Home. Working across different departments and stages of production has given her an understanding of how visual ideas develop through collaboration, from early concepts to their realization on screen and stage.
Alongside her work in film and theatre, Somani maintains an extensive studio practice encompassing painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, and installation. She also develops immersive digital environments using Unreal Engine, exploring how emerging technologies can expand the possibilities of spatial design and visual storytelling. Her work across physical and digital mediums allows her to approach each project through multiple artistic and technical perspectives.
Having lived and studied across India, Berlin, Paris, and New York, Somani brings a cross-cultural perspective to her creative practice. Her interests lie in the intersection of art, architecture, materiality, and narrative, particularly in the construction of environments that reveal character and establish a sense of place. She aims to bring this multidisciplinary approach to production design, creating worlds that feel visually distinctive, thoughtfully constructed, and grounded in the stories they inhabit.
Artist Statement
I am interested in what spaces reveal about the people who inhabit them. The objects we keep, the materials we choose, and the environments we construct carry histories that often go unspoken.
My practice moves between physical and digital worlds, drawing from painting, sculpture, installation, film, and immersive media. Across these disciplines, I explore how texture, color, architecture, and material can shape perception and evoke memory. I am particularly drawn to the narrative potential of ordinary objects and the ways environments can communicate identity, belonging, and absence.
Production design brings these interests together. I approach each environment as a world with its own internal logic, shaped by the characters who occupy it and the stories that unfold within it. From initial research and visual development to material experimentation and spatial construction, I am interested in the details that make a setting feel specific, believable, and lived in.
Whether designing for the screen, stage, or an immersive experience, I want to build worlds that extend beyond their visual appearance—spaces that contribute to the narrative and remain with an audience after the experience ends.