Omaha artist launches designer handbag collaboration with historic French brand

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Laurie Victor Kay developed her passion for art 28 years ago.

“I was exposed to art at a very young age by my mother so I think I grew up with creative process and always knew that,” says Victor Kay.

While attending Central High School, she was very interested in art, although she didn’t necessarily think she was going to follow that path career-wise.

Victor Kay eventually graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying painting and drawing.

She best describes her work as a color wheel.

“It’s colorful, it’s bold, it’s constructed. I use everything from surrealism to, gosh, there’s just so many different bodies of work that influence me. Then I do work in video and I have the multimedia work, works on paper, and I’m painting and I’m drawing again,” says Victor Kay.

Now that art is being showcased here and overseas.

After a chance meeting, Laurie is collaborating with Desmalter Paris, a brand that goes back to 1775, designing furniture for Napoleon Bonaparte. The brand also has work featured currently in the Louvre.

Some of her work is now tangible.

“It is from a room in Paris. I’ve exhibited this actual work where the chandelier came from. It’s been in an exhibition with one of the galleries that represents my work,” says Victor Kay.

This limited edition collection features hand-crafted pouches and totes, all crafted by hand.

“They get my designs and my photographs, and he actually physically has some of my photographs that I cut and I brought them over and then he is doing this photographic replication painting,” says Victor Kay. “I came up with the design, he interpreted it. It started with one bag, then it turned into two bags. I used my Liberté series. I have a Metro series, which is photographed in subways throughout the world, but a lot of them are in Paris.”

The collection officially launches at Lauritzen Gardens for their 2025 Antiques & Design Show. Ten percent of the sale proceeds will go back to the show.

“It’s really special. I can’t even believe it because there’s so much time involved,” says Victor Kay.

For Victor Kay, the importance of local art representation is instrumental to shaping the community.

“I mean look at what they did to the Riverfront. Seeing that landscape change down there and what has happened, and the growth, and just this idea of how our community gets behind big ideas and will make them happen. But at the base, somewhere in there, artists are a huge part of that,” says Victor Kay.

Laurie’s work has been recently featured in magazines like Hyperallergic, Frames Magazine, Whitehot, and Culturator. Her work can be seen in permanent installations at UNMC’s Lauritzen Outpatient Center and Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, the Women’s Center for Advancement, May River Capital in Chicago, 4 World Trade Center in New York, Marriott Capitol Arts District, and Tenaska.

“I personally have lost a niece to cancer, a sister in law to cancer and my mother to cancer. This happened within the last five years, all three of them, and that is not lost on me. There are so many different ways art can heal, also with mental health I think it’s really important. Even for the providers in health care it’s really important to have art in these spaces beyond the patients, it really affects profound change,” says Victor Kay.

Laurie says her mother inspires so much of her work.

“She was extremely involved in the Omaha community with her work through WhyArts and through her nonprofits for arts and accessibility.”

A preview party for the Antiques & Design Show is happening September 25th, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The show runs September 26th-28th, 2025.

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