Erin Genia, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (she/her), is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and community organizer specializing in Indigenous arts and culture.
Genia’s work in these areas is focused on amplifying the powerful presence of Indigenous peoples on the occupied lands of America in the arts, sciences and public realm to invoke an evolution of thought and practice that is aligned with the cycles of the natural world and the potential of humanity.
Genia’s artistic practice merges Dakota cultural imperatives, pure expression, and exploration of materiality with the conceptual. Erin is fluent in multiple modes of expression: sculpture, fiber, sound, performance, digital media, painting, printmaking, jewelry and ceramics.
Her work has received attention from diverse audiences, and has been exhibited nationally and internationally, at the Urbano Project in Boston, the Venice Biennale, Ars Electronica, the Museum of Northwest Art and the International Space Station.
Erin has an M.S. in Art, Culture and Technology from MIT (SMACT ’19), an M.P.A. in Tribal Governance from the Evergreen State College and studied at Institute of American Indian Arts. She was awarded the 2021 Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Grant from Mass Cultural Council, the 2019 MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellowship and the AAF/ Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts in 2018. In 2021, she was named one of the ARTery 25, “Artists Of Color Transforming The Cultural Landscape” of Boston.
Erin served as an artist-in-residence for the City of Boston in 2020 and the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2021, and her public art commissions include the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Tufts University Art Galleries, the Minnesota Historical Society, the City of Saint Paul and the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.