Torey Erin is a Minneapolis based interdisciplinary artist primarily working in moving image, sculpture, installation, ecology, and land art. Torey received her Bachelor’s of Fine Art and Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota. Torey’s work amplifies environmental phenomena to create places where people may share their stories and co-create new art works. Her most recent project as inaugural Prairie Artist in Residence at Franconia Sculpture Park titled Starfield: Seed Choreography engaged in a multi-year ecological research project and ultimate transformation of a 1 acre of turf grass into a large scale land artwork and native prairie. Throughout the project, she utilized compost as material to generate a 60’ wide hugelkultur land form and invited the public to participate in a public ritual to seed the prairie. In 2022, Torey created a living participatory land artwork for the 4Ground Land Art Biennial titled Love Letters to the Earth, where she invited the community to discuss ecological grief and write devotions to earth on handmade seed paper to plant into a perennial garden. She proposes ways of re-imagining material approaches to art and landscape that serve human and non-human life, focusing on environmental change, empathy and relationality. Torey is a Senior Research Fellow at the Minnesota Design Center and adjunct professor of Landscape Architecture in the College of Design. Her design work supports marginalized communities with long term systems design strategies for ecological resilience and development. She is co-producer of DEMO, a community-skillshare workshop series in Minneapolis.
Torey has exhibited at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Mirrorlab, Soo Visual Art Center, Company Projects, Public Functionary, Q2 Gallery, Rosalux Gallery, Yeah Maybe Project Space, FilmNorth, Gamut Gallery, and has an outdoor installation at Silverwood Park in Minnesota and Rabanus Park World Garden in Fargo, North Dakota; she has created costume and set/interior design at First Avenue, the Palace Theater, and the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis. Torey’s films have been featured in the Franconia Environmental Film screening, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Regis Center for Art, Duluth Film Festival, Trylon Cinema, Saltless Sea Cinema, Headwaters Film Festival, and Franconia 5 Minute Film Festival. She is a recipient of the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Grant, Everwood Farmstead Artist Retreat, 4Ground Midwest Land Art Biennial (with support from Plains Art Museum and Franconia Sculpture Park), 2020 Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant, Springboard for the Arts Hinge Artist Residency, Jo Tushie Fellowship, the Blacklock Sanctuary Fellowship, and is a Landscape Architecture Foundation Olmsted Scholar.
Toreyeb AT gmail DOT com