Rea Tajiri is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist and educator who creates installation, documentary and experimental films. She grew up in Rogers Park, Chicago, and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with her BFA and MFA degrees in Post-Studio Art. Tajiri’s work situates itself in poetic, non-traditional storytelling forms to encourage dialog and reflection around buried histories. 

Her early video art shorts were exhibited in museums and galleries nationally and internationally including the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, the Guggenheim, the New Museum, The Kitchen, and Artists Space. For the recent exhibit Legacies: Asian American Arts Movements 1969–2001 at 80WSE Gallery, Tajiri created a commissioned video assemblage using her film History and Memory combined with archival artifacts. Her recent documentary feature Wisdom Gone Wild is a vibrant tender cinepoem where the filmmaker collaborates with her Nisei mother as they confront the painful reality of “wisdom gone wild” in the shadows of dementia. Wisdom screened on the PBS docuseries POV and in International Competition at IDFA; it won the audience award for Best Feature Documentary at Blackstar. In 2024, Tajiri was selected for a NorthStar Fellowship at CIFF for development of her latest project, Non-Alien. 

Tajiri’s digital video and installation work have been supported by JustFilms, Ford Foundation, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a 2022 Chicken and Egg Award, a CAAM Documentary Grant, and ITVS Diversity Development Fund. She has also received fellowships from Rockefeller Foundation, the NEA, and NYFA.