CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/28/2026

Dyani White Hawk offers much needed 'Love Language' in Minneapolis

This week, as all the world watches the Twin Cities, we are pleased to feature a work by Minneapolis-based Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk, whose work is on view now at the Walker Art Center in the landmark mid-career survey, Love Language. “I think about how I want my work to operate in the world,” White Hawk is quoted. “What do I want it to do? What do I want it to do for Native audiences? What do I want it to do for non-Native audiences? What do I want it to do beyond my lifetime, as I send it forward? For me personally, the goal is healing.” Pictured here, Round Dance (2023), is comprised of acrylic, oblong glass beads and synthetic sinew on aluminum panel. “One can view White Hawk’s work as beautiful and grand from a Western cultural perspective,” essayist Heather Ahtone writes. “But one can also choose to engage in the conversation she is offering, a gift from one culture to another, that asks us as participants within the art world to consider our responsibilities as we carry on using the historic values that continue to harm our shared planet and resources. What if we choose to value the earth’s resources responsibly? What if we choose to care for one another over profits? These questions are offered as a gift through the work. White Hawk is asking us to think of our lineage and what we will leave behind to the next generation. Can we value kinship as much as gold?”