New Myth

Working in ceramic, textiles, and mixed media, Luger crafts monstrous figures and vividly colored weapons that fill the gallery like remnants from an epic battle. Giant snake heads, thick black muscle fibers spilling out of their severed necks, rear their fangs shaped like the nozzle on a gas pump. The head of a three-eyed monster, Greed, lies on its side, its acid yellow tongue lolling out uselessly. A twisted hand, chopped off at the wrist, has its title, Ruin, tattooed across its knuckles in blood-red pigment, golden bite marks visible beneath a layer of matted blue hair.

Monster archetypes cut across cultural boundaries, continents, and time periods. “Today,” Luger says, “we are once again plagued by monsters.” In these works, Luger creates a new mythology, manifesting societal ills as corporeal monsters and illustrating their destruction – complete with bloodied weapons – to “recognize the agency we have to slay our present-day monsters.”

Cannupa Hanska Luger: New Myth exhibited at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, 2021.
Process images below at Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, where the Luger was an Invited Visiting Artist in 2021.