Bio
Kelley A Meister grew up in the Midwest, the West Coast, and the South, mostly in the suburbs, so sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. Since then, ze has lived along the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Minneapolis.
In 2008, Kelley received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in Visual Studies. Hir work takes from a history of performance work, printmaking, and painting; and combines them into large-scale installations with live performances, video, puppetry, and animated projections. In 2009, ze received a residency at the Pillsbury House Theatre through the Jerome Foundation’s Naked Stages Emerging Performance Artist program. In 2010, ze was honored to be chosen to be a Core Artist for the Bedlam Theatre's 10th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival.
Kelley has also produced a number of self-published ‘zines including Striped Stockings and The BOLOzine featured in the Mobilivre/Bookmobile traveling show and the Barnard College Feminist Zine Collection, as well as having writing and art work included in several compilation zines.
A founding member of the political performance group BenchPress Burlesque, Kelley also takes performance on the road, having toured the Midwest from Kansas to Kentucky including all of the “M” cities in between and around the East coast, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Ithaca, NY.
Lately, Kelley has joined forces with two other former BenchPress Burlesque members to create Wreck Family Productions. The trio performs around Minneapolis at myriad queer performance cabarets, including Dykes Do Drag, Queertopia, and the Dirty Queer Show. They are currently at work on an evening-length show of their own.