Cannupa Hanska Luger's exhibition 'Dripping Earth' at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, runs until March 8, 2026. The show explores Indigenous futurity through material and conceptual responses to 19th-century watercolors by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who documented Luger's ancestral Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota communities during an 1832-1834 expedition. Luger's works include speculative lithographs, a giant buffalo-shaped abacus, and hand-woven bison regalia, addressing colonization's violent legacy and the unreliability of colonial archives.
The exhibition matters because it reclaims and reimagines historical narratives from an Indigenous perspective, using Bodmer's problematic yet valuable records as a springboard for contemporary artistic expression. Luger, a Burke Prize recipient known for his installation 'Every One' honoring missing and murdered Indigenous women, challenges viewers to consider alternative futures beyond settler-colonial frameworks. The show also highlights the Joslyn Art Museum's collection of over 380 Bodmer works, connecting local institutional history to broader conversations about cultural sovereignty and artistic resistance.