![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-detail-2.jpg?w=960&h=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612028&s=7ab97384d9175d4ed4dc05f492ba8696 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-detail-2.jpg?w=1280&h=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612028&s=f2f1cd8da10ba8c03d5be37e8ea200be 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-detail-2.jpg?w=1600&h=1200&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612028&s=a82e97c5a97033a6faf90b38537e0fa0 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-detail-2.jpg?w=2360&h=1770&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612028&s=676d3e200a31440c952a21b23c587f68 2360w)
Introductions | Dyani White Hawk
Introductions
Dyani White Hawk
4 November 2022 – 6 January 2023
White Cube is pleased to present an online exhibition of works by Dyani White Hawk. As a Sičáŋğu Lakota artist, White Hawk’s practice is informed by a Lakota worldview, which places at its centre the interrelatedness between all life and the land. Understanding culture as fluid and responsive to contemporary experiences, as curator Jade Powers has commented: ‘[White Hawk] visualises oral histories, shifts representation, subverts notions of hierarchy, and deliberately connects histories to bring Native art into the collective understanding of American art history.’
Finding belonging in the realm of abstraction, White Hawk’s visual language is inspired by the histories of Lakota abstract art forms such as beadwork, porcupine quillwork and parfleche painting, as well as Euro/American abstract art forms, most notably within the eras of expressionism and colour field painting.
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Red-and-Orange-2022-medium-res1.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=d9a4ef2ec3c8b49cbe36469b19e4b38c 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Red-and-Orange-2022-medium-res1.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=49c99b4e96d766da97934b39f858644f 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Red-and-Orange-2022-medium-res1.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=8d6cc3d889ded28f0e336b52d286d020 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Red-and-Orange-2022-medium-res1.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=e9dd95edadf6ecee4483f448ac0e9247 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Red-and-Orange-2022-medium-res1.jpg?w=2203&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=c6b71be5a72a2971534ce3c608461864 2203w)
Dyani White Hawk
Untitled (Red and Orange), 2022
Born in Wisconsin, White Hawk earned a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008), where she studied painting and Indigenous arts. She received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011. As a graduate student, White Hawk began forging the visual languages and materials of Lakota abstraction and easel painting abstraction in ways that reflected her life experiences. Negotiating both her Lakota and European-American ancestry, White Hawk explores the intersections, parallels, and at times conflicting value systems of these cultures: ‘Through the amalgamation of symbols and motifs derivative of both Lakota and easel painting abstraction, my artwork examines, dissects, and patches back together pieces of each in a means to provide an honest representation of self and culture.’
Dyani White Hawk
I Am Your Relative, 2020
Six Native women stand side-by-side in the photo-sculpture I Am Your Relative (2022), made in collaboration with photographer Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk). Suspended and centred in a space, the installation features double-sided life-size images of women dressed in colourful, traditional skirts and black slogan t-shirts. The words on their shirts together form a sentence – a profound message which addresses the history and ongoing epidemic of violence perpetuated against Native women, girls, and two-spirit relatives: ‘I am, more than your desire, more than your fantasy, more than your mascot, ancestral love prayer sacrifice, your relative’. Developed from a 2017 performance at a fundraising event for Global Rights for Women, I Am Your Relative humanises and honours Indigenous women, and recognises the vital contributions each provide to their communities and society. Standing as a collective front, their individuality, strength and diversity is foregrounded.
![Dyani White Hawk - I Am Your Relative - 2](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/I-Am-Your-Relative/a192400.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1688002777&s=a52de1fcc315eacd97289826c5ef4ec7 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/I-Am-Your-Relative/a192400.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1688002777&s=e36799b3ce8e384ac3b1b5ce5c803ce9 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/I-Am-Your-Relative/a192400.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1688002777&s=e05796981e5131914eda6c2f3895dbd8 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/I-Am-Your-Relative/a192400.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1688002777&s=b2d5b4f6bd662e2e760a30cf047069a1 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/I-Am-Your-Relative/a192400.jpg?w=2360&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1688002777&s=10399341ddb6fa3921d932e395bcd092 2360w)
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-high-res1.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=1326d5f52d680c8890b2666de8d8db6b 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-high-res1.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=241aca83ae7bf95b7c51b0876e5fbef3 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-high-res1.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=4b4c707c8a3f9cbb330a2b95c61e15dd 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-high-res1.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=99c503a4dd606484727aa251e1dd604f 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-White-Hawk-Untitled-Pink-and-Blue-2022-high-res1.jpg?w=1795&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=98bd21fbee3d0c77116a6896ac2eb4cc 1795w)
Dyani White Hawk
Untitled (Pink and Blue), 2022
White Hawk challenges any singular reading of abstraction. She identifies the language of abstraction as a human expression carried out by infinite people and communities the globe over, as a means to convey complex thoughts and ideas through expressive and poignant compositions, iconography and symbolism. She is personally connected to and inspired by the generations of Lakota women who have practiced abstraction in paint, beadwork, porcupine quillwork and beyond. Her works advocate for field wide critique on the history of abstraction − how it is taught in academic establishments and presented in institutional spaces − calling out oppressive hierarchies and calling for a deep and honest recognition of Indigenous and female contributions. As fellow Lakota artist, Keith BraveHeart, states: ‘Her artworks manifest transcendence and emit voices that include those of the many great Lakota women artists we will never know.’
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/jj74213.png?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=34d16b470ec229533fbbed321f753b9d 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/jj74213.png?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=be1c1e0b7be3f59d3e50697bbce75c74 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/jj74213.png?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=4a32d492668094566d81725205dc9b77 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/jj74213.png?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=3910e39a1ab178533a689d9d3f9621af 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/jj74213.png?w=2360&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=362844d61f43a45fd4837ca6cb1bdcdb 2360w)
Dyani White Hawk
Wačháŋtognaka | Nurture, Takes Care of Them, 2019
Made in collaboration with Highpoint Editions in Minneapolis, Wačháŋtognaka | Nurture (2019) and Wókage | Create (2019) from the ‘Takes Care of Them’ series are inspired by Plains style women’s dentalium dresses – wool dresses which feature yokes adorned with rows of dentalium shells.
White Hawk explains: ‘Through acts of creation, nurturing, leadership, love, and protection carried out in infinite forms, our grandmothers, aunties, sisters, cousins, nieces, and friends collectively care for our communities […] these works speak to the importance of kinship roles and tribal structures that emphasise the necessity of extended family, tribal and communal ties as meaningful and significant relationships necessary for the rearing of healthy and happy individuals and communities.’
Dyani White Hawk
Wókaǧe | Create, Takes Care of Them, 2019
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/Untitled-Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Green/whitehawk_dsc5533.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1681986461&s=d5489585a1179245a73bb4f4fe775e94 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/Untitled-Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Green/whitehawk_dsc5533.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1681986461&s=d2fe0930e3ab4c1ab3c58b133693e005 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/Untitled-Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Green/whitehawk_dsc5533.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1681986461&s=81c583da7b26596ef671743f01997d59 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/Untitled-Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Green/whitehawk_dsc5533.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1681986461&s=62bf244d857504218f891313217f2fca 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/imported-artworks/Dyani-White-Hawk/Untitled-Red-Yellow-Blue-and-Green/whitehawk_dsc5533.jpg?w=2360&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1681986461&s=797fb5da9220de267ef1604a93d0ec6d 2360w)
For the artist, abstract painting is a form of cultural continuity. Her paintings can be viewed as significant acts within a long history of oppression on colonised homelands. In her canvases, which are often made collaboratively, White Hawk literally weaves together aspects of her ancestry, reflecting on the intersectionality of cultures and artistic forms that have collectively shaped the history of abstraction on the American continent.
Dyani White Hawk
Untitled (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green), 2022
White Hawk’s multi-media paintings utilise loomed lane, and flat stitch beadwork techniques, sewn directly onto acrylic and oil painted canvases. Characterised by organic and geometric forms and with a bold chromatic vibrancy, they are finely detailed and precise in their execution. Her colour palette is rooted in the natural world, referencing ‘gifts from the land’ such as porcupine quills, glass beads, metals, minerals, stone, and beyond. Through a combination of paintin techniques, the rhythm of the beadwork and careful consideration of scale and composition, each work is intended to activate a feeling of movement and energy exchange between viewer and painting.
Watch the trailer for LISTEN (2020)
LISTEN (begun in 2020), is an ongoing multi-channel video project, created in collaboration with filmmaker Razelle Benally (Oglala Lakota/Diné). Eight of eleven films made to date, constitute the first chapter of the project. They feature Native women on their ancestral lands, sharing experiences in their Indigenous languages, through stories, songs, prayers and poems. Without subtitles or translation, White Hawk creates a layer of poetic obfuscation between the audience and subject, asking us to tune-in to the immersive auditory experience and cadence of the languages. The first chapter includes Seneca, Dakota, Ojibwe, Diné, Tiwa, Hocąk, Cocopah and Kwatsáan language speakers, a small sampling of the many Indigenous languages of North America. The work impresses upon viewers the profound impacts of genocide, assimilation, and systematic erasure, while expressing gratitude for the role that Indigenous women have played in cultural continuity predating, and enduring, the long history of colonisation.
Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋğu Lakota) was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1976 and lives and works in Minneapolis. White Hawk received an AA from Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kansas (2003) as well as a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe (2008), and she completed an MFA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011). Recent solo exhibitions include Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (2022); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City (2021); Plains Art Museum, Fargo, North Dakota (2020); and The Lilley Museum, University of Nevada, Reno (2019). White Hawk’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, New Mexico (2022); Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona (2022); Whitney Biennial, New York (2022); Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arizona (2021); Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC (2020); and Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2018).
![](https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-portrait.jpg?w=720&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=96446d39e17548d5e6ceb7fcc5c2a980 720w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-portrait.jpg?w=960&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=7bd01e2f9707f5202eab31f140ef7ed4 960w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-portrait.jpg?w=1280&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=5e6843795a4c490edf379b0a31528c43 1280w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-portrait.jpg?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=01c81f0c8a538651131b700418aba611 1600w, https://white-cube.transforms.svdcdn.com/production/uploads/Exhibitions/Online-Exhibitions/Introductions/Dyani-White-Hawk/Dyani-White-Hawk-1/Dyani-portrait.jpg?w=2360&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&dm=1715612059&s=50743226a422a0b4ca5e43a6b1a56650 2360w)
Dyani White Hawk, 2022. Photo by Jaida Grey Eagle.
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