2026 Creatives in Conversation Speaker Bios
MODERATOR
Carley Knobloch, Affiliate AIA|LA – Residential Technology & Lighting Designer
Residential Technology and Lighting Designer Carley Knobloch transforms houses into brilliantly responsive homes where technology whispers rather than shouts. She has been a TV personality for over a decade, regularly appearing on shows like the Today Show and as HGTV’s Smart Home guru. A recent flood-turned-renovation sparked her passion for remodeling and unique perspective at the intersection of design and smart home technology. She now bridges the gap between architects, interior designers, and home automation specialists, creating “intelligent homes” that blend technology and beauty without compromising a home’s aesthetic or usability. Carley’s career as a technology expert includes collaborations with premier brands like LG, Samsung, Citibank and Google. Her work has been featured in publications like Real Simple, Good Housekeeping and Elle Decor.
SPEAKERS
Leo Marmol, FAIA – Co-founder of Marmol Radziner
As Co-founder of Marmol Radziner, Leo is a frequent lecturer on architecture and historic preservation. He has organized numerous tours highlighting Southern California’s midcenturyModernist legacy. Leo earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and was elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2007. In 2009, he was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Outside the office, Leo is a painter whose work explores affect, abstraction, and personal history. Working primarily with oil paint and cold wax medium, his practice draws on the gestural modes of Abstract Expressionism and on a lifelong search for meaning. Leo also fly-fishes, a pursuit that rewards the same patience and attentiveness he brings to everything else.
Valentina Ganeva – Director, Producer, Editor, Valentina Visions
Born in Bulgaria, Valentina B. Ganeva is a graduate of the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia. She holds a BA degree in Film History and Theory and established herself as a freelance film critic for major Bulgarian publications. After
relocating to Los Angeles, Valentina worked as a script reader in the development department of Roger Corman’s company, Concord – New Horizons. Following the completion of the UCLA Extension and Avid certification programs, she joined Murex
Films, Inc., a Santa Monica-based post-production house, as an executive producer and co-owner. During her tenure, she also built an extensive resume editing music videos, documentaries, commercials, and live concerts. Valentina’s industry expertise
includes serving multiple times on the Documentary Juries for the SEE Fest (LosAngeles) and the Sofia International Film Festival (Bulgaria). Her lifelong interest in art, architecture, and design, merged with her expertise in video production, culminated in
her directorial debut, Schindler Space Architect.
Cliff Garten – Founder and Creative Director of Cliff Garten Studio
Cliff Garten is the Founder and Creative Director of Cliff Garten Studio in Venice, California, an internationally recognized practice at the forefront of contemporary public art. His landscape-scaled sculptures shape urban spaces, plazas, infrastructure, and memorials throughout the United States and abroad.
Known for integrating sculpture with engineering, architecture, and landscape, Garten has become a leading voice in redefining public art’s role in civic life. He has advanced the concept of “landscape sculpture” and “the expressive potential of public infrastructure,” insisting that sculpture is part of the social and aesthetic identities of civic systems and places.
Garten holds an MFA, from the Rhode Island School of Design, in ceramic art, and an MLA with distinction, from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is the recipient of two Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation Fellowship for Individual Artists, the Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship, the Jerome Foundation Traveling Artist Grant, and the American Architecture Prize. His civic sculptures have been recognized nationally by Americans for the Arts, the American Society of Landscape Architects, and Codaworxs Awards.
Before establishing his studio in California, Garten served as a tenured Professor of Art at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN and as the H.W.S. Cleveland Visiting Critic and Lecturer at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He remains active as an educator, teaching an approach that positions sculpture as key collaborator with civic architecture, landscape, and engineered public infrastructure. He is currently a visiting critic at the Harvard GSD in Landscape Architecture and has been a critic at RISD, UCLA, SCI-Arc, and Otis.
