(ha)kirinak / to return home by Henry Payer

July 13 - September 21, 2024 | Main Galleries

(ha)kirinak / to return home?features a collection of 35 artworks by Henry Payer, a Ho Chunk artist enrolled in the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska currently residing in Sioux City, Iowa, and?marks the first exhibit of this magnitude that celebrates an Indigenous artist and his return to his ancestral homeland in the State of Wisconsin. Payer with his bold, contemporary, mixed media work aims to contribute to the revision of the Ho-Chunk history through the creation of a contemporary aesthetic of the Ho Chunk narrative.

“My work generally has to do with the culture that I come from, and my background as a Ho Chunk, the Indigenous people of Wisconsin...I’m trying to get people to question and learn more about not only their cultural perspective but about history. This is not just my history that I'm talking about. It's American history. It's regional history. It's state history. It's local history. Indigenous history.” - Henry Payer