OCMA | Orange County Museum of Art

James Luna is a Pooyukitchum (Luise?o) and Mexican-American performance and multimedia installation artist. Luna was born in Orange, California in 1950 and grew up in Orange County. He earned a BFA at the University of California, Irvine and a MS in counseling at San Diego State University. He moved to the La Jolla Indian Reservation in 1975 and lives there today. Initially Luna began his art career as a painter, but branched out into performances and installation, which he has explored for over three decades. His own body has been a major component in his work. For instance, in the 1987 Artifact Piece at the San Diego Museum of Man, Luna lay still in a display case filled with sand and artifacts, such as Luna's favorite music and books, as wall as legal papers and labels describing his scars.