thea rae - artist & performer
Bio
Thea’s career began in Boston and quickly abandoned any pretense of a linear path. Homeschooled and working professionally as a clown and balloon artist by age eleven, they learned early how to merge structure, improvisation, and spectacle. After studying sculpture at Smith College and earning a Master’s from NYU’s ITP, they expanded their practice through circus arts, stunt rigging, and building large-scale installations.
Today, Thea works at the intersection of art, performance, and field science—performing stunts for film and television, rigging aerial systems for artists like Madonna, supporting climate research in Antarctica, and exhibiting installation work internationally. Their practice intentionally weaves together disparate disciplines, connecting movement, tension, and material inquiry into a cohesive research arc that examines how structures hold, adapt, and relate across radically different environments.
CV
Installations
2025 Tension, Browns Island, ME
2024 Tension, Browns Island, ME
2024 Tension, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Watari, Wonderfruit festival, Thailand
2018 Sprilva Poacendere, Wonderfruit festival, Thailand
2015 Gallery, Envision Festival, Costa Rica
2014 F.A.C.T. #3, What The Festival, OR
2014 F.A.C.T. #2, Lightning in a Bottle, CA
2014 F.A.C.T., Envision Festival, Costa Rica
2012 Wading, Oakland, CA
Teaching
2021 Fall Creative Coding, Fordham, NY
2021 Spring Creative Coding, Fordham, NY
2020 Fall Creative Coding, Fordham, NY
2020 Spring Capstone Seminar Fordham, NY
2020 Spring Creative Coding, Fordham, NY
2019 Fall Creative Coding, Fordham, NY
2019 Spring Intro to Digital Design and New Media, Fordham, NY
2018 Fall Intro to Digital Design and New Media, Fordham, NY
2018 Spring Intro to Digital Design and New Media, Fordham, NY
2017 Fall Intro to Digital Design and New Media, Fordham, NY
2017 Spring Arduino for Everyone, Hampshire, MA
2017 Spring Intro to Digital Design and New Media, Fordham, NY
2017 Spring Intro to Multimedia, BMCC, NY
2016 Fall Intro to Digital Media, Smith College, MA
2016 Fall Foundations of Graphic Design, BMCC, NY
2016 Fall Intro to Multimedia, BMCC, NY
2016 Aug Intro to Wearable Electronics E-lectures for Best Buy
2016 Summer Mentor & Workshop leader, ITP Camp, NY
Grants
2022 Wonderfruit Festival Honorarium
2018 Wonderfruit Festival Honorarium
2015 Red Burns Scholarship
2015 TSOA Dean's Fellowship
2015 Tisch School Of The Arts Scholarship
2014 TSOA Dean's Fellowship
2014 Tisch School Of The Arts Scholarship
Solo Exhibitions
2012 Glow, SkunkFunk, CA
2011 The Sun, The Moon, & Monkeys, Basement Gallery Oakland, CA
2010 Ersatz, Basement Gallery Oakland, CA
Group Exhibitions
2025 Other Art Fair, Brooklyn, NY
2025 Other Art Fair, Los Angelos , CA
2025 Women of the Elements, LICA, Queens, NY
2025 Radiant Fibers, NYU, Brooklyn, NY
2025 Worlds Aglow, LICA, Queens, NY
2024 Not Basel, Satellite Show, Miami, FL
2024 Presence // Absence, Under The Pale Blue, Ridgewood, NY
2024 Yellow, Loy Luo Space, Manhattan, NY
2016 Faculty Show, Smith College, Northampton, MA
2016 Future of Storytelling, NYU, NY
2016 MFA Dance Show, NYU, NY 2016 Ze, Bogart House, NY
2016 ITP Spring Showcase, NYU, NY
2016 Magic, Magnets, & Mechanical Motion, Bogart House, NY
2015 ITP Fall Showcase, NYU, NY
2015 ITP Spring Showcase, NYU, NY
Residencies
2024 Browns Island, ME
2022 Wonderfruit, Thailand
2018 Wonderfruit, Thailand
Education
NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, NY - MPS
Smith College, MA - BA, Studio Art
MassArt, MA - Sculpture
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