Dyani White Hawk
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Dyani White Hawk (full name Dyani White Hawk Polk) (born 1976) is a contemporary artist and curator of Sicangu Lakota,
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, and
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ancestry based out of Minnesota. From 2010 to 2015, White Hawk was a curator for the Minneapolis gallery
All My Relations ''All My Relations'' is a 5-minute short animated film from 1990, directed by Joanna Priestley and made from drawings on paper with 3-D frames. Summary It satirizes the pitfalls of romance, from marriage, childbirth and upward mobility to the disi ...
. As an artist, White Hawk's work aesthetic is characterized by a combination of modern
abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19t ...
and traditional
Lakota Lakota may refer to: * Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes *Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples Place names In the United States: * Lakota, Iowa * Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County * La ...
art. White Hawk's pieces reflect both her Western, American upbringing and her indigenous ancestors mediums and modes for creating visual art. White Hawk's work has been featured in group exhibitions at the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...
, the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, Italy, the
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic ...
in Santa Fe, the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe, and
Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
. Many of White Hawk's works have also been acquisitioned into the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the
Tweed Museum of Art The Tweed Museum of Art is a museum on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth, in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. The Tweed Museum of Art was established in 1950 when Alice Tweed Tuohy, widow of George P. Tweed, donated their house an ...
. In October 2023, she was named one of the MacArthur Fellows to recognize her art "revealing the underrecognized yet enduring influence of Indigenous aesthetics on modern and contemporary art."


Early life and education

White Hawk was born and raised in
Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
. Her mother was adopted from the
Rosebud Indian Reservation The Rosebud Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in South Dakota, United States. It is the home of the federally recognized Rosebud Sioux Tribe, who are Sicangu, a band of Lakota people. The Lakota name ''Sicangu Oyate'' translates as ...
in
South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...
to non-Native Wisconsin parents, and as a young child in Wisconsin, the artist had very little connection to her Rosebud family. It wasn't until she was a teen that she began learning about her Lakota ancestry and grappling with issues of heritage and identity. According to White Hawk "my life experiences have been a continual negotiation of both Western and Indigenous educations, value systems, and worldviews." White Hawk received her first undergraduate degree in 2003 from
Haskell Indian Nations University Haskell Indian Nations University is a public tribal land-grant university in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Founded in 1884 as a residential boarding school for American Indian children, the school has developed into a university operated by t ...
. In 2008, she earned a BFA in 2-D Studio Arts from the
Institute of American Indian Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic S ...
(IAIA), and in 2011 she graduated from
University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
with an MFA in Studio Arts. White Hawk credits her mother with encouraging her artistic talent at a young age, but the artist's first painting was completed as part of her IAIA admission portfolio. Her early artwork tends to borrow influence from popular culture and street art. White Hawk cites later influences ranging from abstract modernists such as
Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...
and
Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was born ...
, to Native history traditional tribal art forms. Although she tends to favor artistic traditions specific to her Lakota tribe, White Hawk has also found influence in other Native artistic traditions, such as Navajo weaving.


Work

White Hawk is known for her easel-sized paintings that depict abstract compositions emphasizing saturated colors arranged in symmetrical and asymmetrical patterns. She often privileges patterns and lines that replicate
quillwork Quillwork is a form of textile embellishment traditionally practiced by Indigenous peoples of North America that employs the quills of porcupines as an aesthetic element. Quills from bird feathers were also occasionally used in quillwork. Histor ...
,
beadwork Beadwork is the art or craft of attaching beads to one another by stringing them onto a thread or thin wire with a sewing or beading needle or sewing them to cloth. Beads are produced in a diverse range of materials, shapes, and sizes, and vary b ...
, and textiles. In the painting ''Seeing'' (2010), for instance, the square canvas is divided into nine smaller squares to create a gridded composition. But the grid yields to deep blue sky peppered with cumulus clouds that appear to recede into the distance; this interruption to the grid is also contained by it, as the sky occupies the central cruciform shape of the composition. Appearing to overlap this firmament are four beige-and-blue striped squares that anchor the painting in each corner. Primarily through abstraction, White Hawk examines the relationship of traditional art making in Native American communities to more contemporary practices. Often, her work comments on the problematic minimizing of Native artists versus the recognition given to Western artists who take influence from Native art forms. Moccasin toes, ledger drawings, blanket designs, porcupine quills, teepee forms and other Native American motifs often are the subjects of White Hawk's exacting oil paintings. Though thoroughly modern/contemporary in the expression of her ideas and themes, White Hawk, both as a curator and as an artist, explores her cultural heritage. She writes: "As a woman of Sicangu Lakota and European ancestry, raised among Native communities within urban American environments, my work is an investigation of communal and personal definitions. It is a journey into understanding the history of this land and our relationships with and within it." Dyani White Hawk has exhibited work at the
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic ...
, and the Indian Arts and Culture Museum. Her work has been collected by the
Akta Lakota Museum The Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center is a private, non-profit educational and cultural outreach program of St. Joseph's Indian School, Chamberlain, South Dakota, United States. The museum was established in May 1991 to honor and preserve th ...
, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Wisconsin Union Art Collection, the Robert Penn Collection of Contemporary Northern Plains Indian Art of the
University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship uni ...
and the
Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
. White Hawk's work has been featured in group exhibitions at the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...
, the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, Italy, the
Museum of Contemporary Native Arts The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic ...
in Santa Fe, and the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum in Santa Fe. White Hawk is currently represented by Shiprock Santa Fe and Bockley Gallery. Dyani White Hawk's painting earned the "Best of Classification" award at the 2011 Santa Fe Indian Art Market and a First Place in painting at the 2011 Northern Plains Indian Art Market. She was a SWAIA discovery fellowship recipient in 2012. In 2013, White Hawk was the recipient of the McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship. Dyani White Hawk is known for her art that represents the Native American culture. White Hawk included several messages in her artwork
"I am your Relative
" was created to depict eight Native women sharing their prayer and personal stories related to their Native land." White Hawks art is located in many different museums and she also has participated in cross- cultural residences in at least 4 different countries. White Hawk use
"abstraction to bring American Indian tradition into a dynamic contemporary context."
This is depicted in her artwork "I am your relative." White Hawk was awarded the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant in 2014. In 2015 and 2017, the artist was awarded a Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Regional Artist Fellowship. She is also a recipient of the 2018 Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists and the 2019 U.S. Fellowship for Visual Art. White Hawk was commissioned to create Wopila , Lineage (2022), a 14-by-8-foot work composed of a half million glass bugle beads, for the 2022
Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition ...
. The piece's title references the Lakota word for deep gratitude. The piece, she states, is "meant to honor and show gratitude for the lineage of Lakota women and their contributions to abstraction, for Indigenous women at large and their contributions to art on this continent, for the generations of practiced abstraction that helped nurture and guide the work of the Western artists that were inspired by their work and brought that back into their studios with them as they created easel paintings. I'm pulling from those histories—from my own very specific history of Lakota abstraction, from Indigenous abstract practices at large, from abstract easel painting practices—and hoping to create opportunities for conversation around how connected those histories are and the fact that one doesn't happen without the other."


Solo exhibitions

* 2016 - ''Storied Abstraction'', Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. * 2015 - ''Dyani White Hawk'', Shiprock Santa Fe Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. * 2014 - ''Into the Light: Paintings and Prints by Dyani White Hawk'', Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. * 2013 - ''An Exhibition of Works by Dyani White Hawk'', Gallery 110, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, SD. * 2012 - ''Dyani White Hawk'', Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, MN. * 2011 - ''Inseparable'', Art Lofts Gallery, Madison, WI.


Group exhibitions

* 2019-2020 - ''Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists'', traveling exhibition, June 2 - August 18, 2019 at
Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
, Minneapolis, MN; September 27, 2019 - January 12, 2020 at Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN; February 21 - May 17, 2020 at
Renwick Gallery The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum located in Washington, D.C. that displays American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. The gallery is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that ...
, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; June 27 - September 13, 2020 at
Philbrook Museum of Art Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum with expansive formal gardens located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which opened in 1939, is located in a former 1920s villa, "Villa Philbrook", the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his ...
, Tulsa, OK. *2020 ''- Indelible Ink: Native Women, Printmaking, Collaboration''. University of New Mexico Art Museum.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White Hawk, Dyani 1976 births Brulé people Living people American art curators American women curators Artists from Madison, Wisconsin Native American women artists 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists 21st-century Native American women 21st-century Native American artists MacArthur Fellows