Alum James Luna (1950-2018)

James Luna (BA 1977) passed away on March 3. He was a highly influential Native American performance artist with an international reputation.

"Luna has had more than forty solo shows and participated in eighty-five group exhibitions. His work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario; among other institutions. He was also the recipient of numerous awards, including a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2017; a grant from Art Matters in 2014; an honorary Ph.D. from Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts in 2011; a Distinguished Visiting Faculty Award from the University of California, Davis, in 1994; and a Bessie Creator Award from the New York Dance Theatre Workshop in 1991."