Dyani White Hawk: Love Language

Rooted in intergenerational knowledge, Dyani White Hawk’s (Sičáŋǧu Lakota, b. 1976) art centers on connection—between one another, past and present, earth and sky. By foregrounding Lakota forms and motifs, she challenges prevailing histories and practices surrounding abstract art. Featuring multimedia paintings, sculpture, video, and more, Love Language gathers 15 years of the artist’s work in this major survey.

The exhibition unfolds across four sections named by the artist to speak to Indigenous value systems: See, Honor, Nurture, and Celebrate. See introduces visitors to White Hawk’s worldview. Opening with early pieces that combine quillwork, beadwork, and painting, the artist examines, dissects, and reassembles elements of her own Sičáŋǧu Lakota and European American ancestries. Visitors will encounter Lakota forms and teachings that inform her practice, alongside works addressing urgent issues of settler colonialism and oppression.

In Honor and Nurture, White Hawk uplifts family, ancestors, and community. Her acclaimed Quiet Strength series honors the labor of Indigenous women by referencing Lakota quillwork in the form of large abstract paintings. The multichannel video installation LISTEN (2020–ongoing) features contemporary Indigenous women speaking in their Native languages on their homelands. I Am Your Relative (2020), with photography by Tom Jones (Ho-Chunk), presents life-size photographic portraits carrying powerful language: “I am / more than your desire / more than your fantasy / more than a mascot / ancestral love prayer sacrifice / your relative.”

The exhibition’s final section, Celebrate, marries traditional techniques with outsize scale, paying homage to small gestures that hold great meaning. Featured here are a new series of glass mosaics, beaded sculptures, and White Hawk’s monumental Wopila | Lineage paintings. Made in collaboration with a skilled team of studio beadworkers, these shimmering expanses of pattern and color invite close inspection of both their material construction and their historical underpinnings.

Visitors are encouraged to engage with Love Language as a community space. The galleries offer lounging areas with interpretive materials, educational resources, and cushions and blankets designed by the artist.