Brian Jungen
Brian Jungen’s (b. 1970, Fort St. John, British Columbia; lives/works: North Okanagan, British Columbia) work frequently makes use of commercial or mass-produced objects that are cut and reassembled to resemble masks, drums, and animals. These works address the issues of dispossession and appropriation latent in the aesthetics of contemporary global economic, political, and cultural conflict.
Jungen has presented significant solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2019, 2011); Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2017); Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (2013); Bonner Kunstverein, Germany (2013); National Museum of the American Indian, Washington (2009); Museum Villa Stuck, Munich (2007); Tate Modern, London (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 the Toronto Biennial of Art (2022); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville (2022, 2018); Manif d’Art Quebec City Biennial (2022); FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco (2021); Copenhagen Contemporary (2021); Liverpool Biennial (2018); Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe (2017); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2022, 2017, 2013); De Paul Art Museum, Chicago (2016); Vancouver Art Gallery (2016); and the 9th Shanghai Biennale (2012). His large-scale bronze sculpture, Couch Monster: Sadzěʔ yaaghęhch’ill (2022), is the first-ever public art commission by the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2002, he won the inaugural Sobey Art Award and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 2010. Jungen is a graduate of the Emily Carr College of Art and Design.