On April 25, Dyani White Hawk: Love Language opens at Remai Modern. Through multimedia paintings, sculpture, video, and more White Hawk foregrounds Lakota forms and motifs and challenges prevailing histories and practices surrounding abstract art.
The exhibition—the first stop of which opened in Minneapolis in October 2025—has been profiled in high-profile publications like the New York Times and Forbes and called “dazzling,” “truly epic” and “visionary” by visitors. Before you visit this acclaimed exhibition in Remai Modern’s Marquee Gallery, learn a few key facts about White Hawk and her art practice.
1. She is a certified genius
In 2023, White Hawk was named a MacArthur Fellow, a prestigious designation that recognizes “extraordinary creative individuals” in wide-ranging fields from science to art. Popularly known as the MacArthur Genius Grant, White Hawk was selected for “illuminating the enduring strength, presence, and influence of Indigenous artistic practices within modern and contemporary art.”
The following year, White Hawk was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a program that provides “support to exceptional individuals in pursuit of scholarship in any field of knowledge and creation in any art form.”
2. Her practice is a community affair
Love Language includes large-scale works like Wopila | Lineage, which was commissioned for the 2022 Whitney Biennial and features more than 500,000 individual beads. Prior to making this work, White Hawk had created large-scale paintings. Her beaded pieces were smaller, however, in no small part due to the time and intensity demanded by the medium. When the biennial’s curators requested a a beaded work on the scale of one of White Hawk’s paintings, she was determined to make it happen. She also knew she couldn’t do it alone. After starting with a crew of four, the work eventually enlisted the help of a team of 18.
The creative process for Wopila | Lineage paved the way for more large-scale beaded works. White Hawk now has a team of 10, including her daughter and other relatives, to bring these monumental visions to life. Beyond a means to an end, working with a group of family and friends is a deeply meaningful experience for White Hawk that reflects the ways Indigenous communities come together to create.
3. Her work is correcting art history misconceptions
White Hawk is keenly aware of art historical narratives that place white male painters at the top of the hierarchy. Stories of Abstraction frequently omit where these men drew their inspiration, often from outside their own cultures and, in many cases, from works created by women.
By foregrounding Lakota forms and motifs, White Hawk challenges prevailing histories and practices surrounding abstract art.
“The way that (Native American art history has) been taught thus far has been as anthropological or ethnographic work, or design, or self-taught,” White Hawk said in an October 2025 interview with Forbes. “Within institutions, it’s exhibited on the periphery, under a particular label that is generally outside of quote-unquote fine art spaces. We have been taught a type of hierarchy, fine art and contemporary art being at the top of this pyramid, and then all of these other categories below.”
Love Language not only celebrates traditional Indigenous art forms like beading and quillwork, but the innovation inherent in Indigenous art practices.
“Indigenous art forms are constantly changing. Every time new materials became available, they became incorporated into preexisting artistic practices and flourished so much so that they become part of an artistic tradition. That’s something that is already ingrained in Lakota practices, in Indigenous practices, a constant state of reflecting the world around you,” she continued in the same Forbes article.
4. She explores geometry as a culturally rooted visual language
The newest work in Love Language is Infinite We, a sculpture shaped like a large hourglass or kapémni. This shape is foundational in Očeti Šakowiŋ (Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota) design and represents the connection between the spiritual and physical worlds.
“The kapémni really is a worldview based in Lakota philosophy that underscores our connectedness across all humanity, all plant life, all life period,” White Hawk said in an interview with the New York Times. “Utilizing it in my own work serves as a personal reminder over and over again to live by our values.”
The kapémni, a motif she has used frequently over the last 15 years, and other intricate geometric forms are defining features of White Hawk’s works in all media, from beadwork to painting.
5. Love Language is without borders
Love Language debuted in White Hawk’s base of Minneapolis. In an interview with Mpls.St.Paul Magazine she said “it’s so damn important to me that our community can have access to the work.” But this community extends far beyond the American city. Having two museums create this exhibition, one north of the border and one south, was no accident. Remai Modern and the Walker Art Center are both situated on the homelands of White Hawk’s ancestors.
“The histories of the Great Plains, stretching across what is now the Canada-US border, reflect a rich tapestry of interconnected trade, kinship, and spiritual networks sustained by Indigenous nations long before settlement. The imposition of a border in the 19th century disrupted these networks, separating communities like the Očeti Šakowin cultural group—Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota nations—whose territories long predate national boundaries.”
- Love Language exhibition materials
The exhibition design and interpretation for Love Language was developed to ensure a sense of belonging for the Indigenous community and for all of the Walker’s and Remai Modern’s many visitors. The gallery environment includes ample seating featuring the artist’s dynamic blanket and cushion designs made with Faribault Woolen Mills and Ginew. The installation also includes a range of interpretive audio recordings and videos exploring the artist’s working process and featuring Indigenous voices. In-gallery touch stations, developed in collaboration with the artist’s studio team, also allow visitors to explore materials such as quills, beads, and buckskin used in White Hawk’s works.
About Dyani White Hawk: Love Language
Dyani White Hawk: Love Language is co-organized by Remai Modern, Saskatoon and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Curated by Tarah Hogue (Métis), Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art, Remai Modern, and Siri Engberg, Senior Curator and Director of Visual Arts, Walker Art Center; with Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center
Lead support is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
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