Dyani White Hawk is a Wisconsin-born contemporary artist and curator based in Minneapolis. Drawing from her Sičáŋǧu Lakota and European ancestry, White Hawk brings together Indigenous and Western artistic traditions, foregrounding Native practices, systems, and histories.
Read MoreWhite Hawk holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe (2008), and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011). She is the former director and curator (2011—2015) of All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis.
White Hawk works across painting, sculpture, textiles, performance, video, and photography. The artist's mother was adopted from Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota to non-Native parents. White Hawk's Lakota ancestry informs her approach to both medium and subject, with Native art forms and media, such as beading, porcupine quillwork, weaving, and buckskin recurring throughout her practice.
White Hawk is interested in redressing an historical lack of representation of Native artists in modern and contemporary art discourse. Entwining personal and shared histories, she confronts assumptions around national identity and consciousness, complicating narratives around Western modernism and abstraction through asserting the presence of Native art identities.
White Hawk's early works explored repetition and geometric forms in abstract painting. In Seeing (2011) the square canvas is split into grids, with the central cross form containing a realistic depiction of a blue sky with clouds. The outer four squares at each corner are striped navy and cream, rendered in repeated thin brushstrokes that recall weaving or threading.
The acrylic on canvas Čante Skúya (Sweetheart) (2012) depicts two intricately patterned, curved forms against a sky-blue background, with the mark making evocative of the texture of textiles. Mustard yellow and maroon stripes are seen to intersect with white borders patterned with triangular and rectangular forms.
White Hawk's later works integrate mixed media and textiles. In Untitled (Gold and Russet) (2018) and Untitled (Bronze) (2019), beading and threading are incorporated into acrylic and oil paintings on canvas, adding dimensional form to the geometric patterns that were previously painted in two-dimensional works. Opulent and highly detailed, these works may be seen to share a visual language with quilting or wall hangings.
For Carry I and Carry II (both 2019), White Hawk expands into three-dimensional sculptural forms, with buckskin tassels trailing from the central wall pieces to the floor. Details such as red-dyed feathers, glass beads, and brass sequins form adorn bag-like structures, engaging the overlap between painting and textile, fine art and craft.
Repetition is a key feature of White Hawk's work. In large-scale paintings such as She Gives (Quiet Strength IV) (2018) and Untitled (Quiet Strength V) (2019), the artist's repeated geometric tile patterning conveys a quiet focus. The works' titles possibly hint at a sense of burden, or a desire for resilience and calm.
Dyani White Hawk's work has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Speaking to Relatives, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver (2022); She Gives, Plains Art Museum, Fargo (2020); Storied Abstraction, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis (2016); Shiprock Santa Fe Gallery, Santa Fe (2015); Into the Light: Paintings and Prints by Dyani White Hawk, Bockley Gallery (2014).
Group exhibitions include Indelible Ink: Native Women, Printmaking, Collaboration, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque (2020); and Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis (2019).
Dyani White Hawk's website can be found here, and her Instagram can be found here.
Jean Watt | Ocula | 2023
