DYANI WHITE HAWK: SPEAKING TO RELATIVES
February 18–May 16, 2021
Speaking to Relatives, which was recognized with a major National Endowment for the Arts grant, was a major solo exhibition of mixed-media works by Minneapolis-based artist Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota, born 1976). This ten-year survey presented White Hawk’s unique merging of the visual language of abstraction with Lakota art forms.
Through innovations in abstraction and transcription of historical imagery, White Hawk’s work speaks to themes of identity and visibility, placing White Hawk at the forefront of dialogue on Native art as American art. She works across different cultures, histories, and visual traditions to show the significance of a shared history between Native and non-Native groups. Using this approach, White Hawk encourages conversations that challenge the lack of representation of Native people, arts, and voices in art movements and beyond.
Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives was organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, and curated by Jade Powers, assistant curator. A full-color catalogue accompanies the exhibition. In 2022, Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives travelled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver.
Kemper Museum sponsored this program in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
This exhibition has been generously supported by the R. Crosby Kemper Jr. Exhibition Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Sustaining Sponsor
Barbara and Peter Gattermeir
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives, organized by Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Jade Powers, assistant curator, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Foreward by Sean O'Harrow, introduction by Jade Powers, essays by Kathleen Ash-Milby, and Carmen Hermo.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Installation view, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," February 18–May 16, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: E. G. Schempf, 2021.
Exhibition closing, "Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives," May 13, 2021, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Photo: Kenny Johnson, 2021.
IN THE NEWS
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"Dyani White Hawk: Nurturing the Spirit" – KC STUDIO
“The Sičáŋǧu Lakota Artist Pays Tribute to Her Ancestors and Honors Native Women in a Powerful Exhibit at Kemper Museum
Like a juggler twirling multiple plates, Dyani White Hawk, in her exhibition “Speaking to Relatives,” seamlessly melds different cultures, languages and aesthetic traditions into one immersive event. Her exhibit, which includes paintings, sculpture, beadwork, photography and video, is a powerful and unforgettable experience, which curator Jade Powers has installed to perfection. For those who linger and look, White Hawk’s art fills up the heart, mind and body; it may also stir up unknown, unbidden ancestral longings.”
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"Dyani White Hawk Exhibition: A Chat With Curator Jade Powers" – Made in KC Explore
“The beauty of the Dyani White Hawk exhibition draws us into conversations about the important and long history of Native art-making practice and its role in Abstraction.
New to the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Speaking to Relatives is a major solo exhibition of mixed-media works by Minneapolis-based artist Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota, born 1976). Curated by Jade Powers, this ten-year survey of painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation presents White Hawk’s unique merging of the visual language of abstraction with Lakota art forms. Her work expresses a shared formal and conceptual practice and acknowledges the significance of Indigenous art as American art.”
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"White Hawk’s Kemper exhibit is a rejection of Indigenous annihilation" – The Pitch
“‘Everything here is formed in relation to every other living and nonliving thing from the earth. All our relations.’
—There There by Tommy Orange
Dyani White Hawk’s work is a declaration of those relationships. The objects created by hands, the words spoken by mouths, the patterns passed down by generations, the new materials alongside the old. The strength in relationship between those who have survived genocide. The relationship to the generations yet to come. She illuminates this web of relatives.”
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"Dyani White Hawk: Speaking to Relatives" Mn Artist (Walker Art Center)
“The influence of Indigenous aesthetics on abstract painting, material hierarchies, and retelling histories
Through her practice, Minnesota artist Dyani White Hawk brings Lakota artistic practices like bead and quill work into conversation with European and American abstract art lineages, tearing down hierarchies and offering new ways to understand the intersection of Western and Indigenous aesthetics.”