Rory Erler Wakemup

Born 1976, St. Paul Minnesota

Tribal Enrollment Minnesota Chippewa Tribe

Rory Wakemup is a Master of Fine Arts graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2015. He received his Master of Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2014. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts Santa Fe New Mexico in 2010.

Wakemup is a multidisciplinary artist whose work turns the script of cultural appropriation on its head. He has morphed his experience in Indian ceremonies with his studio art practice and has become a conduit between conceptual ideas and the materials at hand. Wakemup enjoys playing with the grey areas of what is appropriate in today’s society. He was a co-founder of the Humble Experiment, Independent Student Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was on a panel for Native Underground, sponsored by the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture. Wakemup was awarded the “Chazen Museum Prize” over 80 other applicants in the UW Madison MFA program for his MFA show “Kill the Idiot Save the Fan” and was featured on Wisconsin Public Televisions “Wisconsin Life” and a front page Article on the “Sundays Best” section of the Wisconsin State Journal.

Since Rory Wakemup has finished school in 2015 he has dedicated his art practice to community engagement for social justice. Accolades in 2016 include a full page spread in the Minneapolis newspaper Star Tribune for his “Smart Wars” performance at the Minneapolis American Indian Center on Indigenous People Day, and his a collaboration with Cannupa Hanska Luger was awarded the years best art event of 2016 by First American Art Magazine.