ABOUT

Rhea Thierstein is a British Creative Director, Set Designer and Multidisciplinary Artist creating concept-led environments, installations and sculptural objects shaped by narrative, materiality and playful surrealism.

With over 20 years’ experience spanning art, luxury retail and cultural commissions, she leads projects from pitch through to production, shaping campaign environments, retail installations and immersive spatial experiences. Her practice moves across scale – from intricate handcrafted objects to large theatrical installations.

At the heart of her work is creating worlds. Through unexpected scale, handcrafted detail and a sense of surprise, she creates spaces and objects that invite audiences to stop, look closer and engage with the story.

Her work includes projects for Hermès, Selfridges and Swarovski, alongside successful pitch-led commissions for the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. She was selected through competitive pitch to develop campaign imagery for the V&A’s Food: Bigger than the Plate exhibition and to create a sculptural installation for the Natural History Museum’s Venom exhibition.

Her work has been featured in Italian, American and British Vogue, Vanity Fair, Love and Another Magazine, and includes a long-standing body of commercial and editorial collaborations with fashion photographer Tim Walker.

She has been commissioned multiple times by Hermès to create Artist Windows across the UK, Ireland and Dubai, and was named one of London’s 10 fastest-rising creatives by The Business of Fashion.

Based in Kent, she works across London, the UK and internationally.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

ENTOGRAPHICA — BRLSI, Bath (2026)
Insect Odyssey — Salisbury Museum (2022)
The Other Art Fair — London (2021)
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things — V&A (2019–2020)
FOOD: Bigger than the Plate — V&A (2019)
Venom — Natural History Museum (2017–2018)
Saatchi & Saatchi Group Exhibition (2014)

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

Named one of London’s Top 10 Young Creatives by The Business of Fashion (2013)
British Arrow Craft Award – Production Design Finalist (2011)
Gold Deutsche Fotobuchpreis Award – Designer, Pictures by Tim Walker (2009)
Best Fashion Documentary – The Greatest Luxury (Istanbul & Barcelona Film Festivals, 2018)
Charity Film Awards – Gold & Silver (2020)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Tim Walker – Wonderful Things (V&A)
Tim Walker – Shoot for the Moon (Thames & Hudson)
Tim Walker – Pictures (teNeues)
Grace: The American Vogue Years (Phaidon)