About

Photograph by Samantha Tracy, 2025

Biography

Terran J. Last Gun, Saakwaynaamah’kaa (Last Gun), (b. 1989, Browning, MT) is an enrolled Piikani citizen and visual artist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Piikani Nation (Spotted Robes) of Montana, also called the Blackfeet or Amskapi Piikani (Southern), are one of the four nations that comprise the Siksikaitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy; Siksika, Kainai, Piikani or Apatohsi Piikani (Northern) nations are each located in Alberta, Canada) and are collectively known as the Blackfoot People or Niitsitapi (Real People). Born and raised on the Blackfeet Reservation, Last Gun’s work centers around the process of color exploration and visual documentation of nature, cosmos, cultural narratives, and personal experiences. Often employing geometric aesthetics, he is contributing to an ancient Niitsitapi North American narrative.

He has exhibited at venues including the SITE Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM), IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (Santa Fe, NM), Glacier Art Museum (Kalispell, MT), Missoula Art Museum (Missoula, MT), Bates Museum of Art (Lewiston, ME), Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), Museum of the Plains Indian (Browning, MT), Contemporary at Blue Star (San Antonio, TX), Zimmerli Art Museum (New Brunswick, NJ), and the Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass Village, CO) among others.

Last Gun received his BFA in Museum Studies and AFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2016. He has received awards from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation 2024 Biennial Award, First Peoples Fund 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship, and the Santa Fe Art Institute 2018 Story Maps Fellowship. Last Gun was named one of the 2022 12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now in Southwest Contemporary, and most recently was named one of the Art in America 2026 New Talent 20 Artists to Watch.

Artist Statement

Color and shape are the building blocks of my art practice and connect me to my Piikani heritage. As a visual artist, my influences are Blackfoot painted lodges throughout the confederacy, hide art, and war shirts, as well as Blackfoot archaeology throughout Montana, and Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. My work bridges the ancient to the contemporary, all while creating visual color stimulation in my varied approaches to making art such as printmaking and ledger drawing that utilizes antique ledger sheets and documents. I am revealing fragments of time, history, and Piikani abstraction—an art form that has continued to survive in North America for thousands of years. My work is bold, vivid, and has abstract minimalist qualities that are potent in meaning, content, and place.

CV

EDUCATION

2016 BFA, Museum Studies, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM

AFA, Studio Arts, Institute of American Indians Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2011 A.S., Environmental Science, Blackfeet Community College, Browning, MT

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2027 Terran Last Gun: Mystery Beings of the Above World, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn University (Upcoming)

2026 Terran Last Gun, McClain Gallery, Houston, TX (Upcoming)

2026 Terran Last Gun: Celestial Observations, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2026 Terran Last Gun, Virginia Tech, School of Visual Arts, Blacksburg, VA

2025 Terran Last Gun, McClain Gallery, Houston, TX

2025 Terran Last Gun, Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR

2025 Terran Last Gun, Good Luck Gallery, Kalispell, MT

2025 Terran Last Gun, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM

2025 Terran Last Gun, Chapter NY, New York, NY

2025 Terran Last Gun, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2024 Terran Last Gun, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO

2024 Terran Last Gun: Piikani Visual Sovereignty, Glacier Art Museum, Kalispell, MT

2024 Terran Last Gun: The New West, University of Montana Western, Dillon, MT

2023 Terran Last Gun: Small Works, light | space, Tucson, AZ

2023 Terran Last Gun, Saakwaynaamah’kaa (Last Gun), K Art, Buffalo, NY

2023 Terran Last Gun: Future Cosmic Energy, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT

2023 Terran Last Gun, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM

2021 Terran Last Gun, Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, TX

2020 Terran Last Gun: Color Play, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Store, Lloyd Kiva New Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2020 Terran Last Gun: Paper Bags, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM

2019 Terran Last Gun, LOOM Indigenous Art Gallery, Gallup, NM

2019 Terran Last Gun, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM

2018 Terran Last Gun, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts Store, Lloyd Kiva New Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

TWO PERSON EXHIBITION

2027 Father / Son, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM (Upcoming)

2024 Last Eagle / Last Gun: Modern Recordings of Ancient Blackfoot Symbolism, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2027 Mountain Time, Glebbow, Calgary, AB, Canada (Upcoming)

2026 Geometry of Culture, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM (Upcoming)

2026 Behind Linear Narratives: Indigenous Plains Ledger Art, Jackson Hole History Museum, Jackson, WY

2026 Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2026 Alchemies of Place, COL Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2025 Moving Tradition into the Future, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND

2025 12th SITE SANTA FE International: Once Within A Time, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM

2025 Indigenous Identities: Here, Now & Always, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

2025 Engaging The Future, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM

2024 Echoes of the New Frontier, COL Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2023 Bright Spot, Good Luck Gallery, Kalispell, MT

2023 Exploding Native Inevitable, Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME (Traveling Exhibition)

2023 The House Edge, The 8th Floor, New York, NY

2023 Landscapes of Survivance, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA

2023 Oscar Howe Legacy Across Four Generations, University of South Dakota, John A. Day Gallery, Vermillion, SD (Traveling Exhibition)

2023 Summer Showcase Special Exhibition, Museum of the Plains Indian, Browning, MT

2022 Moving East, K Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

2021 Cloud Cover, McClain Gallery, Houston, TX

2019 The Young Americans, Rainmaker Gallery, Bristol, UK

2018 Story Maps Fellowship, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM

2018 IMPRINT, Ralph T. Coe Arts Center for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM

2018 Lost Coast, Etiquette, Santa Fe, NM

ART FAIRS

2026 San Francisco Art Fair, COL Gallery, solo presentation, San Francisco, CA

2025 INDEPENDENT Art Fair, Diane Rosenstein Gallery, two person presentation, New York, NY

2022 Art Toronto Art Fair, K Art Gallery, two person presentation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

LECTURES / TALKS

2024 CreativeMornings Santa Fe Speaker, Vladem Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2024 Artist Conversation with Glacier Art Museum Director and Missoula Art Museum Curator, Glacier Art Museum, Kalispell, MT

2023 Young Artists Balancing Tradition with Contemporary Expression Panel, Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, NM

2023 Artist + Creative Conductor Conversation, Hecho a Mano, Santa Fe, NM

2023 Artist Talk with MAM Curator, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT

2022 Piikani Art, Blackfeet Community College, International Blackfoot Research Conference, Browning, MT

2021 Artist + Curator Conversation, Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, TX

2019 Visual Arts Lecture Series, Bennington College, Bennington, VT

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

2023 Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Visiting Artist Invitation, Snowmass Village, CO

2017 IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Local Artist-in-Residence, Santa Fe, NM

AWARDS

2024 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award, New York, NY

2020 First Peoples Fund, Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship, Rapid City, SD

2018 Santa Fe Art Institute, Story Maps Fellowship, with the City of Santa Fe Fire Department, Mobile Integrated Health Office, Santa Fe, NM

2016 Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Goodman Aspiring Artist Fellowship, Santa Fe, NM

COLLECTIONS

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX

Bates Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME

Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA

Glacier Art Museum, Kalispell, MT

Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA

Heritage Center at Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, SD

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE

JoAnn Gonzalez Hickey Collection, CO

Microsoft Art Collection, Redmon, WA

Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT

Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX

Museum of the Plains Indian, Browning, MT

Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC

Newberry Library, Chicago, IL

North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, ND

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH

University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA

PUBLICATIONS

Jordan Eddy, New Talent 20 Artist to Watch, Antique accounting ledgers tell new stories, Art in America, Summer 2026

Jordan Eddy, The People’s Biennial, New Mexico Field Guide, Southwest Contemporary, June 2025-2026

Maximilíano Durón, The Best Booths at Independent, From a Porcelain Janitor’s Cart to Abstract Ledger Drawings, ARTnews, May 9, 2025

Parker Ewen, Standout Booths at the Independent Art Fair 2025, IMPULSE, May 9, 2025

Maria Owen, Terran Last Gun’s Eternal Ledger Drawings, Review, IMPULSE, April 3, 2025

Ashley M. Biggers, The Next Wave, Legacy, Santa Fe New Mexican, August, 2024

Mike Kordenbrock, With Hockaday Exhibition, Artist Terran Last Gun Brings Past and Present Together, Flathead Beacon, May 1, 2024

Chadd Scott, Terran Last Gun: Contemporary Spin on Ancient Tradition, Essential West, Medicine Man Gallery, June 28, 2023

Cory Welsh, Terran Last Gun: Piikani artist’s geometric Indigenous abstraction, Missoulian, May 4, 2023

Alex De Vore, Branching Lines (Cover Story), Santa Fe Reporter, May 3, 2023

Lynn Trimble, 12 New Mexico Artists To Know Now: Terran Last Gun, Southwest Contemporary, May 27, 2022

Jennifer Levin, Making sense of the world with timeless design: Terran Last Gun’s serigraph prints, Pasatiempo, Santa Fe New Mexican, June 26, 2020

Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer, Bold Color and Shape by a Contemporary Piikani Artist, First Peoples Fund, February 3, 2020

Alex De Vore, First Solo, Santa Fe Reporter, May 29, 2019

Jordan Eddy, Mapping the Divide, Santa Fe Reporter, November 28, 2018

Alicia Guzman, IMPRINT, Santa Fe Reporter, August 8, 2018

SERVICE

Spring 2019–Fall 2021, City of Santa Fe, Art in Public Places Committee

PODCASTS

A Creative Excuse, Terran Last Gun, June 23, 2025

Collective Spirit, Terran Last Gun, S3 E6, April 24, 2025

Hello, Print Friend, Terran Last Gun, E194, June 20, 2023

A Creative Excuse, Terran Last Gun, May 26, 2019