Terran Last Gun Returns to Kalispell with Solo Exhibition
The ledger paper used for the drawings ranges from the early 1900s up to 1913, and draws from sources including cattle records, veterinarian records, and journal day book entries
By Mike Kordenbrock
It’s been a busy year for the Piikani artist Terran Last Gun, but he’s excited to be back in Montana showcasing his work at Good Luck Gallery in downtown Kalispell, where a new solo exhibition of ink and colored pencil ledger drawings will run through mid-August.
Originally from Browning, but based now out of Santa Fe, Last Gun said that the Kalispell exhibition, which will feature new work made for this particular event, comes on the heels of shows in L.A. and New York City.
“I think just people are really recognizing my work, finally,” he said of why his calendar has been so packed.
But in Kalispell, he’s long had a following, and fans, including Good Luck Gallery owner and artist Tessa Heck. When she opened the gallery in 2023, Last Gun’s art was some of the first work the gallery hosted, and Heck said that she first became aware of Last Gun while he was a graphic designer, roughly a decade ago.
Heck said that when it comes to his ledger drawings, she appreciates the way in which his graphic design roots, and use of color theory, allow for a contemporary, “punchy” twist on a very traditional style of art.
Last Gun, whose work was on display last year at the Hockaday Museum of Art (now the Glacier Art Museum), has previously said that he comes to his art through the lens of what he calls abstract indigenous geometry.
He sees his work on a continuum alongside traditional Piikani art and imagery, like painted lodges, war shirts, hides and other artifacts, and his work also draws on landscapes, cosmology and traditional stories, as well as his own personal experiences.
Since the Hockaday show, Last Gun says that he believes he has developed more, and that some of the works on display back in 2024 were older pieces. With the new ledger art, he’s found himself thinking of it more in terms of the ways in which it represents a geometric abstraction, and that he’s still trying to fully understand what it means to him.
He said that the work often speaks to him when he’s in the process of giving titles to his art, and that paying attention to his titles is one way people can gain insight into what he’s thinking of as an artist.
Titles for pieces at the show range from the more open-ended, almost mystical tones of “Paths Ahead Are Varied But Connected,” to the more declarative sounding “Multiple Entry Points,” to the potentially explanatory “Emulating Old Forms and Moving Forward.”
Even though the titles suggest one way to understand the work, Last Gun appreciates the varied ways in which people engage with his art, and said he enjoys hearing people’s interpretations.
“I think it’s interesting because the work brings up so many different memories, and new ideas, too.”
Titling a piece can take “hours and hours,” and Last Gun said that he thinks that the experience is similar to what his viewers go through in trying to understand his work.
“I think colors and shapes are very powerful,” he said. “They can mean many things to people.”
The ledger paper used for the drawings ranges from the early 1900s up to 1913, and draws from sources including cattle records, veterinarian records, and journal day book entries.
The show includes 10 new drawings, as well as a pair of diptych drawings, in which two drawings are mounted alongside each other and separated by a narrow band of blank space. The diptychs are a form Last Gun said he’s been working on lately.
The chance to show his work in Kalispell also provides an opportunity for Last Gun to visit the Blackfeet Reservation, which he said is important to his process as an artist. Speaking Thursday morning from East Glacier, he said that he’d been visiting and catching up with people, and had plans to cruise around the reservation and take some photographs.
The landscape with its flattened plains, mountains, buttes, and hills, really reflects the core of his work, according to Last Gun. The artist said he is especially excited to see the scenery while things are still green.
“For me as an artist, the land and seeing it in person, and being on the ground, that really influences my work.”
The artist reception for Terran Last Gun’s solo exhibition at Good Luck Gallery in downtown Kalispell will go from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, June 13. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be available. Attendees will have a chance to meet Last Gun and learn more about his work. The exhibition will be on display through Aug. 15.