Highpoint Editions is pleased to announce one of our latest publications: Wówahokuŋkiya | Lead, an edition of eighteen screenprints created in collaboration with artist Dyani White Hawk. Wówahokuŋkiya | Lead is one in a four print suite titled Takes Care of Them, inspired by Plains style women’s dentalium dresses. As a set, together they speak to the ways in which Native women collectively care for our communities. Through acts of creation, nurturing, leadership, love, and protection carried out in infinite forms, our grandmothers, aunties, sisters, cousins, nieces, and friends collectively care for our communities. As a suite, these works speak to the importance of kinship roles and tribal structures that emphasize the necessity of extended family, tribal and communal ties as meaningful and significant relationships necessary for the rearing of healthy and happy individuals and communities.
White Hawk explains: “The idea for this suite of four dresses came from the practice of requesting four veterans to stand in each cardinal direction for protection when particular ceremonies are taking place. My mother is a veteran. In thinking through the ways the women in our lives stand guard, protect, and nurture our well being, the idea for this set of four was born. Each print is individually named with a quality that embodies the ways they care for us all. Yet, this list of qualities could go on and on and each person carries multiple roles. This list is simply a starting point, an acknowledgement and gesture of gratitude for the many women in my life that have helped Create, Nurture, Protect, and Lead in ways that have taught me what it means to be a good relative.”
Highpoint looks forward to completing the Takes Care of Them suite in the coming months, which will include three prints featuring gold, green and red colors, adorned with new details designed by White Hawk.
About Dyani White Hawk
Dyani White Hawk (Sičáŋǧu Lakota) is a visual artist and independent curator based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. White Hawk earned an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2011) and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2008). She served as Gallery Director and Curator for the All My Relations Gallery in Minneapolis from 2011-2015.
Recent support for White Hawk’s work has included 2019 United States Artists Fellowship in Visual Art, 2019 Eiteljorg Fellowship for Contemporary Art, 2019 Jerome Hill Artists Fellowship, 2019 Forecast for Public Art Mid-Career Development Grant, 2018 Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists, 2017 and 2015 Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Fellowships, 2014 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant, and 2013/14 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship. She has participated in residencies in Australia and Russia and Germany. Her work is in the collections of the Denver Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Tweed Museum of Art, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Akta Lakota Museum among other public and private collections. She is represented by Bockley Gallery in Minneapolis