Photograph by Samantha Tracy
TERRAN LAST GUN (b. 1989) is a Piikani (Blackfeet) visual artist and printmaker whose work reveals fragments of time, history, and Indigenous Abstraction—an art form that has persisted for tens of thousands of years. Reclaiming, restoring, and reinvigorating the practices of his Indigenous heritage, Last Gun is creating a new Piikani art form inspired by ancient art, nature, and the cosmos. Sah'kwiinaamah'kaa (Last Gun) was born and raised in Browning, Montana, where the Rocky Mountains greet the Great Plains. As a citizen of the Piikani Nation in Montana—who are members of the Siksikaitsitapii (Blackfoot Confederacy) that includes Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani nations of Alberta, Canada—Last Gun is contributing to an ancient Indigenous North American narrative. He employs a visual language that infuses form and color with Indigenous symbolism to create new portals for accessing these histories. Last Gun explains his artwork and the influence of Blackfoot culture as "a visual interpretation of nature, the cosmos, cultural narratives, and recollections in reduced geometric aesthetics and vibrant energetic color harmonies. (...) Piikani or Blackfoot painted lodges are visual masterpieces of the Great Plains and are pre-European invasion classic art. [They] depict the world in which we live, through geometric geological landmarks, figurative animals, and the above world that connects us to Natosi (Sun)."
Last Gun received his A.S. degree from the Blackfeet Community College in 2011 and his BFA in Museum Studies and AFA in Studio Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2016. He is a recipient of awards from the First Peoples Fund, 2020 Artist in Business Leadership Fellowship; Santa Fe Art Institute, 2018 Story Maps Fellowship; and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, 2016 Goodman Aspiring Artist Fellowship. The artist was recently recognized in Art in America’s New Talent 2026, as one of 20 emerging artists to watch.
His work has been exhibited at SITE SANTA FE, Santa Fe, NM; Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO; Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ; Hockaday Museum of Art, Kalispell, MT; Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT; Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, TX; and the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM, among others. His work is held in permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA; the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX; the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH; and the Museum of Plains Indian, Browning, MT. Last Gun is represented by McClain Gallery in Texas, where he has had two solo exhibitions. He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.