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Cannupa Hanska Luger’s exhibition “American Traditional” is on view at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York. A Hyperallergic review describes works combining wood, ink and archival references to connect the slaughter of bison with the destruction and trauma experienced by Plains Indigenous peoples. The review’s interpretation is distinct from the historical quotations and facts it cites.
Artist Cannupa Hanska Luger is presenting “American Traditional,” a 2026 exhibition at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York that uses bison imagery and archival references to address the destruction of buffalo and the harm to Plains Indigenous peoples. In a review, Hyperallergic describes the show as a move toward more declarative work, combining wood, ink and historical material.
The review describes Luger’s works as built around forms whose visual appeal is inseparable from a history of violence. In “Requiem” (2026), an abstracted black bison sits on a blackened rendering of a 19th-century American dining table. Another work, “Shoots Today, Kills Tomorrow” (2026), is pictured with Luger at the gallery. The source does not provide a complete exhibition checklist or technical details for each piece.
Hyperallergic connects the show to the mass killing of bison across the Great Plains after European settlers brought horses, firearms and railroads that enabled slaughter on an industrial scale. The review cites historian Mari Sandoz’s account of bison as central to Plains life, providing shelter, clothing, food and fuel. It also draws on Cree scholar Tasha Hubbard’s argument that bison were understood as kin by Plains nations and that their destruction compounded Indigenous trauma.
The review places Luger’s work alongside an 1892 photograph of two men beside a mound of buffalo skulls. It recalls that Yurok artist Stormi Turner covered the image with a small curtain in a Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition, an intervention the reviewer read as an act of care. The comparison frames Luger’s exhibition as an encounter with a visual record of destruction, rather than a neutral presentation of historical imagery.
Bison History at the Gallery
The exhibition makes the history of bison slaughter visible through contemporary sculpture, asking viewers to consider the human consequences behind images and objects associated with the animal. For Plains Indigenous peoples, the loss was not only ecological or economic: as the review explains through Hubbard’s scholarship, bison were kin and foundational to community life. That relationship gives the works a meaning beyond documenting the decline of a species.
The approach also matters for museums and galleries that display archival images of violence. Turner’s curtain, as described by the reviewer, shows one way an artist can alter how audiences encounter such material. Luger’s exhibition takes a different form, placing sculptural objects and historical references together. The review presents both as ways of confronting the history without treating its images as detached artifacts.
Those points are the review’s critical interpretation, not a statement of Luger’s own position quoted in the supplied material. The reported facts include the works’ titles and dates, the venue and the historical sources cited; the claim that this is the artist’s strongest work is the reviewer’s judgment.
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From Buffalo Skulls to Sculpture
The review recalls a photograph from 1892 showing two men beside a large pile of buffalo skulls. It says the image was displayed with Turner’s curtain as part of “Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum” at the Baltimore Museum of Art. That earlier encounter serves as the reviewer’s point of comparison for “American Traditional,” not as a claim that the two exhibitions are connected.
In the account cited by Hyperallergic, bison numbers fell under the pressure of settler expansion and organized hunting. The review quotes Colonel Richard Irving Dodge’s reported advice that “every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.” It also recounts a statement attributed to General Philip H. Sheridan, recorded by buffalo hunter John R. Cook in 1875, opposing a Texas proposal to protect bison and supporting their continued extermination. These quotations illustrate how some military and political figures linked the destruction of bison to the subjugation of Native peoples.
Luger was born on the Standing Rock Reservation and is an enrolled citizen of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, according to the review. Its historical framing draws on Sandoz and Hubbard to situate the exhibition in the particular history of the Great Plains, rather than treating bison as only a symbol of the American West.
““Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.””
— Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, as quoted by Cree scholar Tasha Hubbard in the Hyperallergic review
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Details Still Missing From the Record
The supplied report does not specify the exhibition’s opening and closing dates, its full list of works, or whether the gallery has published a separate artist statement. It also does not include direct comments from Luger about the exhibition’s aims. The review’s interpretation should not be treated as a substitute for the artist’s own words.
The historical quotations are presented through the sources cited by the reviewer; the material supplied here does not include independent documentation of their original publication or full context. The review attributes the analysis of bison as kin and the description of their destruction as genocide to Hubbard. Those interpretations should remain attributed rather than stated as uncontested fact.
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Exhibition Details and Further Response
“American Traditional” is identified as a 2026 exhibition at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York. Readers seeking to visit will need the gallery’s current listing for dates, hours and availability, which are not included in the source material. The Hyperallergic review provides the available account of the works and their historical framing.
Further information could clarify the show’s full scope, the materials and presentation of individual pieces, and Luger’s own explanation of how the works relate to the history described in the review. No additional events, programming or next exhibition dates are specified in the available report.
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Key Questions
What is “American Traditional”?
It is a 2026 exhibition by Cannupa Hanska Luger at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York. Hyperallergic describes works combining wood, ink, sculptural forms and archival history.
Which works does the review discuss?
The review names “Requiem” (2026), featuring an abstracted black bison on a blackened dining table, and “Shoots Today, Kills Tomorrow” (2026). It does not provide a full checklist.
What history does the exhibition address?
The review connects the works to the mass killing of bison and the consequences for Plains Indigenous peoples, for whom bison provided material support and, as Hubbard’s scholarship argues, were understood as kin.
When can visitors see the exhibition?
The source identifies the show as a 2026 exhibition at Garth Greenan Gallery but does not give opening or closing dates. Check the gallery’s current listing for visitor information.
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