INFO
Kiernan Francis is a New York–based filmmaker and interdisciplinary image-maker working across photography, moving image, casting, installation, and nightlife programming. Rooted in realism and shaped through collaboration, his practice explores identity, intimacy, absurdity, and contemporary subculture. Working between documentary sensibility and constructed narrative, he develops projects through relationships formed across nightlife, fashion, online spaces, street casting, and underground creative communities.His practice moves fluidly between casting, directing, producing, styling, and research, allowing him to build projects independently or through highly collaborative productions. Across formats, Francis approaches image-making as both a creative process and a form of social infrastructure.
Recent projects include The Hold, a film and photographic project that premiered at WHAAM Gallery in New York in July 2026; Backseat of the Couch, a NYSCA-funded film scheduled for its UK premiere in September 2026; Trial Period, which was later featured on the Criterion Channel; and Fashion Year, a six-channel installation first presented in Marseille before subsequent screenings in Berlin and New York.
Alongside his artistic practice, Francis collaborates with artists, musicians, publications, and fashion brands across casting, directing, photography, and production. His commercial and editorial work includes projects with Versace, Celine, Puma, Skims, SSENSE, Tommy Hilfiger, Eric Emanuel, Heaven by Marc Jacobs, The New Yorker, i-D, DUST Magazine, ODDA Magazine, Highsnobiety, Levi’s, Interview Magazine, and Paper Magazine. He is also the founder of Club POLO, a recurring nightlife project in New York that brings together artists, musicians, models, nightlife figures, and emerging creatives across generations and disciplines.
His films, screenings, and installations have been presented in New York, Marseille, Berlin, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Turin, and Miami, with work featured in Interview Magazine, The New York Times, Document Journal, Crack Magazine, Paper Magazine, Plaster Magazine, Vanity Teen, and the Los Angeles Times. Francis holds a BFA in Film/Video from Pratt Institute.
His current work continues to move between independent film, episodic storytelling, and projects rooted in New York’s social and cultural landscapes.
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Selected Exhibitions, Screenings & Programs
2026
Screening: Backseat of The Couch
Dalston Superstore
London, England, United Kingdom
Exhibition: Don’t Stop
WHAAM! Gallery organized by Abella D’Adamo
New York, NY, USA
Screening, Installation, and Artist Interview: Backseat of the Couch, Trial Period, Not Punching, and The Princess Diaries
Studio 1111, curated by Luca Paul; artist interview moderated by Phillip Pyle
Berlin, Germany
2025
Post-Screening Discussion: COFFY
Whitney Review of New Writing, Metrograph
New York, NY, USA
Screening (Selected Films)
Amanda Ba Studio
New York, NY, USA
Group Exhibition
No Tax Gallery
Paris, France
Screening: Trial Period
Vienna Club Commission
Vienna, Austria
Screening: The Liminals
Basement Art Assembly Biennial, presented by DIS
Rome, Italy
2024
Solo Exhibition: New Faces
Preacher’s Daughter Gallery, curated by Madison Kenny
New York, NY, USA
Screening: Fashion Year (Boys Don’t Talk)
Curated by Luca Paul Modersohn
Berlin, Germany
Screening: Trial Period
Curated by Lea Gugler
Berlin, Germany
Screening: Backseat of the Couch
NYSCA Grant Screening
New York, NY, USA
2023
Group Exhibition & Art Fair: SYSTEMA
Les Palais des Arts, curated by Myriam Mokdès and Fiona Omnès
Marseille, France
Screening (Selected Films): Reunion
NeueHouse Madison Square, curated by Sam Stillman and Sean Glass
New York, NY, USA
2022
Solo Exhibition: Trade Winds, White Heat
Public Works Administration, curated by Sam Black and Alison Sirico
New York, NY, USA
2021
Exhibition: Bleeding Out
Curated by Matthew “Tully” Dugan
Miami, FL, USA
2020
Exhibition: Black Tarantula
Curated by MRZB
Turin, Italy