Brenda Draney
Brenda Draney (b. 1976, member of Sawridge First Nation, Treaty 8; lives/works: Edmonton) uses figurative painting to explore themes of memory, identity, and the complexities of relationships. Dreamlike, her paintings present a tension between representational specificity and the space of unpainted canvas. Sparse brushstrokes allude to uneasy domestic scenes, tent cities, and environmental disasters, drawn from sources that are simultaneously remembered, inherited, and imagined. Marked by stretches of void canvas, her works portray fragmented narratives from her communities in Slave Lake and Northern Alberta. What remains is both ambiguous and ambivalent, offering a “doorway or entry point for a viewer to come and bring their own stories to bear and enter the work on their terms.” Rather than simply represent what has been seen, she renders that which is left unsaid or what is unable to be articulated.
Draney’s recent solo exhibitions include Ortuzar, New York (2025); Art Gallery of Grande Prairie (2025); The Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2024, 2013); The Arts Club of Chicago (2023); The Power Plant, Toronto (2023); Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver (2023, 2022); McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (2020); and Fogo Island Arts (2019). Recent group exhibitions include McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg (2026); Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City (2024); Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2023, 2022, 2018, 2015); NS Dokumentationszentrum, Münich (2019); Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff (2019); Oakville Galleries (2018); Kitchener-Waterloo Gallery (2018); Audain Gallery, Vancouver (2017); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2016); Esker Foundation, Calgary (2015); and Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (2013). She received her Master of Applied Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2010), and her BFA from the University of Alberta (2006). Draney was the recipient of the 2014 Eldon and Anne Foote Visual Arts Prize, and was winner of the 2009 RBC Painting Competition.