2018 Burke Prize Winner

A multidisciplinary artist of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota, Austrian, and Norwegian descent, Cannupa Hanska Luger (United States, b. 1979) was raised on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, which also serves as the site for several of his works and performances. His work includes community-based projects that focus on issues facing indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada, often addressing environmental issues such as land and water protections, as well as the high rate of assaults and other violent crimes committed against female, queer, and trans members of indigenous populations.

Luger's interests lie in creating monumental installations that incorporate ceramics, video, sound, fiber, steel, and cut paper. He activates his work through performance elements and political activism in order to communicate stories about twenty-first-century indigeneity. Often incorporating calls to action, Luger's multifaceted projects provoke diverse publics to engage with indigenous people and values outside the lens of colonial social structuring. Through his work, he places emphasis on his role as an indigenous maker in the current era. The artist states:

I define craft differently than most institutions or craft practitioners. My exposure to craft is colored by my Indigeneity. The process of surviving in the world as an Indigenous maker is unlike the survival of other craftspeople; the preservation of our people feels urgent and is deeply tied to the survival of our craft traditions.

Mirror Shield Project (2016), of which two components were on view at MAD as part of The Burke Prize 2018: The Future of Craft Part 2, exemplifies Luger's focus on craft as a community endeavor. The project began as an instructional video, teaching viewers how to make a mirror shield out of plywood and reflective Mylar. Participants were invited to send the mirror shields to the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) camp at Standing Rock, for use during the 2016 demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipeline. In addition to Mirror Shield Project: Mirror Shield (2016), the exhibition at MAD featured the video Mirror Shield Project: Water Serpent (2016), which documents the use of the mirror shields by the water protectors at Standing Rock in a performance organized by the artist.

Luger has exhibited internationally at venues such as the Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York; Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC; Art Mûr, Montreal; the Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff; Galerie Orenda, Paris; the Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; and the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta. He lectures and participates in residencies around the globe, and his work has been collected internationally. Luger holds a BFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts and was a 2016 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellow.