James Luna

Quick Facts

Full Name	James Luna
Occupation	American artist
Date Of Birth	Feb 9, 1950(1950-02-09)
Age	74
Date Of Death	March 4, 2018, Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans, LA
Birthplace	Orange
Country	United States
Birth City	California
Horoscope	Aquarius

James Luna Biography

James Luna is one of the most popular and richest American artist who was born on February 9, 1950 in Orange, California, United States. 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. He taught art at the University of California, San Diego and spent 25 years as a full- time academic counselor at Palomar College in San Marcos, California.

In 2005 the National Museum of the American Indian sponsored him to participate in the Venice Biennale. The piece he created, Emendatio, included three installations, Spinning Woman, Apparitions: Past and Present, and The Chapel for Pablo Tac, as well a personal performance in Venice, Renewal dedicated to Pablo Tac (1822–1841), a Luiseño Indian author and scholar, who went to study in Rome, where he died.

Luna had a fatal heart attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 4, 2018, aged 68.

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. The work looked like a museum exhibit and was set in a hall dedicated to traditional ethnographic displays. The marks and scars on his body were acquired while drinking, fighting, or in accidents. Critics praised Luna’s ability to challenge conventional understandings and displays of the Native American identities and presumptions about his own personhood by putting his own body on display. He performed “The Artifact Piece” in 1990 at The Decade Show in New York City.

James Luna Net Worth

James Luna is one of the richest American artist from United States. According to our analysis, Wikipedia, Forbes & Business Insider, James Luna 's net worth $5 Million. (Last Update: December 11, 2023)

James Luna (February 9, 1950 – March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, 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. With recurring themes of multiculturalism, alcoholism, and colonialism, his work was often comedic and theatrical in nature. In 2017 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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 used objects, references to American popular culture, and his own body in his work. 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:

In the early 1990s, Luna stood outside of Washington DC’s Union Station and performed Take a Picture With a Real Indian. Luna describes the performance by saying:

Height, Weight & Body Measurements

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Who is James Luna Dating?

According to our records, James Luna is possibily single & has not been previously engaged. As of December 1, 2023, James Luna’s is not dating anyone.

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Facts & Trivia

Phittayaporn Ranked on the list of most popular American artist. Also ranked in the elit list of famous people born in United States. James Luna celebrates birthday on February 9 of every year.

Is James Luna Native American?

James Luna passed away on March 4, 2018. He was a Puyukitchum/Ipai/Mexican- American Indian artist whose work highlighted the way museums and American culture portray Native Americans.

What might be the importance of James Luna presenting himself as an

artifact?

The Artifact Piece Here Luna puts himself in a position of power. He can decide whether the people around him will know that he is alive, he can choose to look at them, even to talk to them. The audience is thus included in the performance without having the possibility to choose or to influence.

Which concept does James Luna critique in his work artifact piece?

This performance came to be known as “Artifact Piece.” Luna was commenting on the standard museum practices of presenting indigenous cultures as natural history (objectifying instead of humanizing, presenting difference as curiosity) and of the past (implying indigenous people and cultures no longer exist).

What is James Luna ethnicity?

James Luna (February 9, 1950 – March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist.

What did James Luna do in 1987?

It holds its own in importance alongside any of the major works of the institutional critique movement from the latter half of the 20th century. A photo of James Luna enacting Artifact Piece , first performed in 1987.