Brian Jungen
Brian Jungen (b. 1970, Fort St. John, British Columbia) is an artist living in the traditional territory of the Dane-Zaa Nation within Treaty 8 in northern British Columbia. Known for his distinctive transformations of mass-produced objects, Jungen has frequently worked with materials such as clothing, furniture, and sports equipment to evoke Indigenous masks, drums, and animals. His practice not only challenges but also bridges boundaries between Indigenous and popular cultures, foregrounding the complex dynamics of appropriation, adaptation, and cultural identity in a globalized economy. His work often explores themes of shelter, ritual, and survival, while revisiting the aesthetic languages of both modernist sculpture and traditional Indigenous artistry.
He has been exhibiting internationally since 1998, including significant exhibitions at Prospect New Orleans (2024); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2022, 2018); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2019, 2011); Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2017); Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (2013); Bonner Kunstverein, Germany (2013); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, (2012); National Museum of the American Indian, Washington (2009); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2007); Tate Modern, London (2006); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2006); Vancouver Art Gallery (2006); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2006); and New Museum, New York (2005).
Jungen’s work has been included in recent group exhibitions at SFMOMA, San Francisco (2024); Toronto Biennial of Art (2022); Manif d’Art Quebec City Biennial (2022); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2022, 2017, 2013); FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco (2021); Copenhagen Contemporary (2021); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2020); Liverpool Biennial (2018); Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe (2017); De Paul Art Museum, Chicago (2016); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); and the 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012). In 2002, he won the inaugural Sobey Art Award and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2010. Jungen is a graduate of Emily Carr College of Art and Design.
His large-scale bronze sculpture, Couch Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill (2022), is the first-ever public art commission by the Art Gallery of Ontario.