James Luna

James Luna (February 9, 1950 – March 4, 2018 ) was a Puyukitchum, Ipai, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibitions depict Native Americans.

Background Luna was born in 1950 in Orange, California. He moved to the La Jolla Indian Reservation in California in 1975. In 1976, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University of California, Irvine, and in 1983, he earned a Master of Science degree in counseling at San Diego State University. In 2011, he received an honorary doctoral degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Luna was an active community member of the La Jolla Indian reservation. He served as the director of the tribe's education center in 1987, and the community was often a focal point of his photography and writing.

Artwork A self-proclaimed "American Indian Ceremonial Clown", "Culture Warrior," and "Tribal Citizen", Luna's artwork was known for challenging racial categories and exposing outmoded, Eurocentric ways in which museums have displayed Native American Indians as parts of natural history, rather than as living members of contemporary society.

While Luna began his art career as a painter, he soon branched out into performance and installation art, which he did for over three decades. He performed over 58 solo exhibitions starting in 1981 and partook in group exhibitions and projects across the United States and the world. His artistry was often referred to as both disruptive and radical for its stark confrontations with colonialism, violence, sexuality, and identity. Some of his best known pieces are:

The Artifact Piece (1987–1990) In The Artifact Piece (1987) at the San Diego Museum of Man, Luna lay naked except for a loincloth and still in a display case filled with sand and artifacts, such as Luna's favorite music and books, as well as legal papers and labels describing his scars. He performed "The Artifact Piece" in 1990 at The Decade Show in New York City. In utilizing and engaging a public audience, Luna taps into common cultural commodification of Native American culture. Such a trend manifests in the idea of the "McIndian"; the idea that Native culture is something that can be massed produced, consumed, and enjoyed without acknowledging the deep history of oppression Native Americans have endured.

Emendatio (2005) In 2005 the National Museum of the American Indian sponsored him to participate in the Venice Biennale. 2001: Dorantes Lecturer (Santa Barbara City College, California) 2002: Creative Capital Award 2007: Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art 2015: Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Arts Fellowship 2017: Guggenheim Fellowship

Death Luna had a fatal heart attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 4, 2018, at the age of 68.