TINA ROSE REA MEISTER

INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST

Soft Places: Preserving the Sapphic Home Archive
Solo Curatorial Project
Madison, WI — 2026

“The things we do to keep ourselves safe”
Anonymous
Partner’s quilt block sample, beading

“When I was living there, I was a real person”
Anonymous
Kitchen towel, beading

“Dusting and closing doors”
Anonymous
Sock, beading

“To teach you that the strength and the power is in the softness”
Michelle
Fabric from child’s bedroom

“I see it as an extension of myself”
A. L. Durning
Handknit sweater, beading

“There is no more forgiving a home”
Lily Moskowitz
Placemat, lace, hair, beading

”Cradle it and love it and care for it and pet it”
Audrey Zelinka
Pillowcase, beading

”Creation is in each other’s hands”
K.C.
Pillowcase, testosterone syringes, beading

”Going through the house, seeing things disappear”
Suzanne S.
Bowtie, beading

”It felt like a hug”
Anonymous
Bra, beading

”Claiming hardness and vulnerability in the same breath”
Serenity Garcia
Leather from chaps, studs

Lithops
Oil on Canvas, 36” x 36”

To sink to float to belong
Acrylic on Wood Panel, 24” x 36”

Watering Place
Oil on Canvas, 30”x30”

This exposure is my own
Acrylic on Wood Panel, 24” x 36”

This ravine we carved into
Oil on Canvas, 36”x36”

To enjoy this beautiful world despite
Oil on Canvas, 40” x 60”

Taking care of you taking care of me
Oil on Wood Panel, 15” x 15”

Suspended in time in our one bedroom apartment
Oil on Wood Panel, 16” x 16”

I’ll kiss you in front of the zucchinis
Oil on Canvas, 24” x 18”

Dreams (protection)
Cotton thread and glass beads on worn family oven mitts
2024

Garden of Earthly Delights
Cotton Quilt, 116” x 116”
2026

Garden of Earthly Delights (detail)
Cotton Quilt, 116” x 116”
2026

The Bathtub
Found textile tapestry, throw-sized
2024

What is at stake
Cotton Quilt with hand-dyed and photo-printed fabric, 36” x 48”
2025

Monogram I
Cotton thread on cotton towel

2025

Monogram II
Cotton thread on cotton towel
2025

Monogram III
Cotton thread on cotton towel
2025

Under the Covers Girl
Hand-animated Video Collage
1m29s
Debuted at Art + Lit + Lab Mill’s Folly 2024. Won Best Art Film (Super Short), Toronto Alternative Film Festival 2025.

Sum of Our Parts (Portrait A)
9-channel Video & Sound Collage
4m42s

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Tina Rose Rea Meister
tinarosemeister@gmail.com

Tina Rose Rea Meister is an interdisciplinary artist and writer whose work centers around queer archive and world-making through the lens of domestic and ecological spaces. Her current work utilizes quilting and fiber arts, paintings, and experimental film to explore a nuanced, layered dynamic between the interior and exterior. Through patterned florals woven into paintings and film, fragmented text embroidered onto household objects, and imagined futures and dreams rendered on the surface of blankets, her practice explores the ways in which interior, psychological, and relational identities are externalized into both the most precious, curated spaces of the home, along with the tensions between that intimate space and the wider world. Her community practice is currently engaged in a queer experimental film series, and a collection of textiles documenting the queer home archive.

Education

University of Wisconsin—Madison
Master of Fine Arts
3rd Year Graduate Fellow
2026

Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Bachelor of Fine Arts
Departmental and Academic Honors
2023

Select Group Shows

2026
Wisconsin Artists Biennial Exhibition, Museum of Wisconsin Art,
West Bend, WI

Sapphic Resistance, Paper Room Studio, San Antonio, Texas

Egg Show, Common Wealth Gallery, Madison, WI

2025
Queer Madison Biennial, Common Wealth Gallery, Madison, WI

Friends of Dorothy, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL

Wherever Home Is, James Watrous Gallery, Madison, WI

Interwoven, Textile Arts Center, Madison, WI

2024
Looking Backward, Looking Forward: 7th MassArt Alumni Biennial Juried Exhibition, Doran Gallery, Boston, MA

Echo // Ode, Backspace Gallery, Madison, WI

Metamorphosis Fashion Show, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI

As Much As Humanly Possible, Art Lofts Gallery, Madison, WI

Body Language, Art + Literature Laboratory, Madison, WI

2023
Fruit by the Foot, Backspace Gallery, Madison, WI

2022
Around the Bend, South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN

Personal Time Machine, (Curator), Frances Euphemia Thompson Gallery, Boston, MA

ECHOLAND, Installation Space Gallery, North Adams, MA

Solo Shows

2026
Soft Places: Preserving the Sapphic Home Archive, Art Lofts Gallery, Madison, WI

Interior Natures, Studio 1269, Madison, WI

2025
This Heart a Tender Chamber, Gallery 7, Madison, WI

2024
Queer Joy Community Quilt, Kohler Art Library, Madison, WI

I’ll tuck you in each night, the Fluno Center, Madison, WI

Presentations & Conferences

2026
“‘The things we do to keep ourselves safe’: Collective Memory Work in the Queer Textile Home Archive”
Panelist on Collage: Remixing Collectivities in the Cut, Association for the Study of Arts of the Present 17, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, WI

2025
“Soft Places: Preserving the Sapphic Home Archive”
Panel Chair on Memory Work, Lesbian Lives Conference, CUNY, New York City, NY

“Sapphic Textile Archive Workshop”
Workshop, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, New York City, NY

“An Interdisciplinary Review”
Artist Talk, Icelandic Textile Center, Blönduós, Iceland

“Dreaming the Archive: Interdisciplinary Approaches”
Artist Lecture, UW Art Colloquium, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI

2023
“Records of Wear: Visible Mending Workshop”
Workshop Facilitator, Climate & Justice Teach-In, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA

2021
“Vampire, Vampire, Vampire: An Examination of Edvard Munch's Iterative Process”
Featured Research Presenter, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

Awards & Grants

2026
Blair H. and Leah D. Temkin Exhibition Award
Creative Arts Award Recipient

2025
Global Engagement Office Summer Research Award
Graduate Student Research Grant Competition Award
Best Art Film, Super Short Film Category, Alternative Film Festival, Toronto, ON, Canada
The Hal Lotterman Fellowship in Art
The Kenneth D. Brown and Robert G. Kaentje Scholarship
The Merton R. and Peggy E. Barry Fellowship

2024
The Eugene F. Dana Graduate Student in Art Scholarship
Alegre Young Emerging Artist Scholarship
Division of the Arts Artivism Grant