Hello
My name is Kat Vandal, I'm a mixed-media artist based in London, known to transform preloved toys and childhood nostalgia into happy fine art as a rebellion against adulthood and the seriousness of the art world.
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Using ball-pit balls, figurines, teddies and balloons, I combine the art of upcycling with playfulness and emotional resonance, layered both figuratively and literally.
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I’m a nostalgic individual, obsessed with primary childhood. Motherhood gave me a second doorway into childhood, but I feel the ache of that doorway closing and the fear of being trapped in an adult world where no one wants to play.
My practice is a way for me to keep playing and stay a child forever.
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My hope is to bring joy through happy memories, more than just decoration, I want my artworks to live in people’s homes like emotional anchors, a sensorial keepsake of the childhood spirit even after it has left the house.
Art as a therapy
This work is my therapy, and I hope it can bring peace and joy to others too.
I create art from toys because they are physical symbols of childhood’s smallest joys. And I believe that remembering small moments of joy is choosing happiness. But I also know first-hand, that happy memories can be bittersweet depending on the mood we’re in.
That’s why I choose to remain playful, to transform melancholy into happy nostalgia. I use uplifting colours and cheerful symbols to create an immediate reaction, a first smile, almost like a dopamine rush. Then, once the viewer is softened into that brighter place, the work can open into something deeper: a connection that invites them to dig into their own memories.
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My art is for the kid trapped in adulthood.
My influences
My artworks represent childhood through an adult lens: joyful colours and playful chaos, sharpened with edge and emotion, an explosion of structure and spontaneity. My palette mirrors this tension: yellows, pinks, and rainbow brights anchored by black contour, elevated by glitter, silver, and gold.
My first influences were Vasarely, Delaunay and Kandinsky, who showed me as a child that art could be fun and experimental through colour and repeated shapes, rather than technical perfection or intimidating realism. Later, Street Art and Pop Art, especially Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, added attitude, directness, and cultural charge, sharpening my work into something punchier and more refined.​
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But this visual language isn’t just decorative for me, it’s the emotional delivery system.
In their words...
"This creative practice is a beautiful act of emotional reclamation, born from the profound experience of motherhood, as she began giving new life to her son’s outgrown toys. This act became a celebratory process of taking what was left behind and transforming it into what she calls ‘Happy Art’, a lasting monument to life’s joyful moments.​'
ARTVOX LONDON, independant art media
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"Kat Vandal wants to "transfer positivity" with her Happy Art which is all about upcycling nostalgia and uplifting others. She's realised that the toys of her childhood and those from her son's early years inspire smiles and optimism by bringing back good memories. Kat believes that for most of us there was joyful escape through imaginative playing with toys."
DANIEL SITWELL, journalist​
"Kat Vandal blends joyful rebellion with coded nostalgia, turning lived experience into a high-impact visual language. Her work moves with rhythm, attitude, and depth — a convergence of street sensibility and gallery power. She codes culture, not just comments on it.Her fluency in pop iconography transforms familiar visuals into new symbols of identity and play. Her palette carries instant emotional weight. She's anti-hype but hyper-strategic, aligned with communities and collectors who value intention over trends. Her style is unique, defensible, and deeply resonant."
SIMON WILLIAMS, collector​​​
"Kat vandal's artworks not only rekindle the warmth of childhood but also emphasise the beauty of sustainability, finding creative purpose in what might otherwise have been discarded. Her process brings fresh life into childhood memories, preserving them vividly bold and in an exciting different way"
ALEXANDRA MANN, Art curator and owner of The Gallery of Things, Berlin