Olivia Messer is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary practitioner with work spanning communications, social research, institutional development, and material study.

Their interests center on how cultural narratives are mediated by objects, social structure, and modes of public engagement, with particular attention to material culture, design history, and exhibition practices.

Her professional experience spans nonprofit operations, as well as administrative and educational environments in positions involving communication, collaboration, and public-facing interaction. This work has shaped their understanding of how information is organized and presented for different audiences, and how structural constraints shape encounter.

Alongside this work, she maintains a material practice working primarily with metal and textiles, producing objects which explore ideas of ornament, protection, labor, and proximity. Approaching making as a method of inquiry as well as a form of output, tactile processes lend way to deeper understanding of the relevance of contradiction, scale, and spatial relation in object-design.