Brenda Draney – CV

Brenda Draney
b. 1976, Sawridge First Nation, Treaty 8
Lives and works in Edmonton, Canada

Education

  • 2010 Master of Fine Arts, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver
  • 2006 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Selected Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions

  • 2024 Drink from the river, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • 2023 Unfinished Business, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver
    Drink from the river, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada; The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, USA
  • 2022 The best stories I know come from late night car rides or kitchen tables, with Tanya Lukin Linklater, Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver
  • 2020 Break, Deborah Schamoni Galerie, Münich, Germany
    Brenda Draney, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Canada
  • 2019 Smelling Salts, Fogo Island Arts, Shorefast, Canada
    Medium of Exchange, Touchstones Nelson Museum, Canada
  • 2013 Suspend, RBC New Works Gallery, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • 2012 Fire Destroyer Creator, Stride Gallery, Calgary, Canada
  • 2010 Brenda Draney: Hold Still, Latitude 53, Edmonton, Canada

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • 2024 Coast to Coast to Coast: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, USA 
    Early Days, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, USA; Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City, Canada
    Generations: The Sobey Family and the Story of Canadian Art, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Quebec City; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, Canada
  • 2023 Early Days, Heard Museum, Phoenix, USA
    Generations: The Sobey Family and the Story of Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; Confederation Centre of the Arts, Charlottetown, Canada
  • 2022 Road Trip, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • 2019 Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS Dokumentationszentrum, Münich, Germany
    The Time is Now and Yesterday and Tomorrow, Indigenous Art Centre Gallery, Government of Canada, Gatineau, Canada
    Carry Forward, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff, Canada
  • 2018 Current Terrains, ImagiNATIVE, A Space Gallery, Toronto, Canada This Must Be The Place, MKG127, Toronto, Canada
    Land Mark, The Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
    An Assembly of Shapes, Oakville Galleries, Toronto, Canada
    13 Ways to Summon Ghosts, Gordon & Marion Smith Foundation, Vancouver
    Belonging to a Place, Embassy of Canada Art Gallery, Government of Canada, Washington, USA
    Carry Forward, Kitchener-Waterloo Gallery, Canada
  • 2017 Belonging to a Place, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada
    Maps and Dreams, Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
  • 2016 Sobey Art Awards, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
  • 2015 Future Station: The 2015 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • 2014 90X90: Celebrating Art in Alberta, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • 2013 Fiction/Non-Fiction, Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada
    Incubator Series, Latitude 53, Edmonton, Canada
    They Made a Day be a Day Here, Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Canada; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada; School of Art Gallery, University of Manitoba, Winnepeg, Canada
  • 2012 Not Forgetting, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, Canada
  • 2011 Go Figure, MKG127, Toronto, Canada
  • 2009 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada
    RBC Canadian Painting Competition, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada
    Always Almost: Master of Applied Arts Graduate Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada
  • 2007 Elevations, The Other Gallery, Banff Centre, Canada

Public Art Projects

  • 2017 Trapline, MacEwan University Centre for the Arts and Culture Public Art Project, Allard Hall, Edmonton, Canada

Magazines and Periodicals

  • 2024 Madalyn K. Shaw, ‘Brenda Draney: Drink from the river’, Espace 138, Fall
    Ethan Montague, ‘Edmonton artist hopes to challenge viewers’ lived experience during AGGP exhibition’, Grande Prairie Now, 17 July
    Diana Sherlock, ‘Brenda Draney: Drink from the River’, Galleries West, 28 February
    Lois Taylor Biggs, ‘Abstraction, Legibility, and Desire in the Work of Brenda Draney’, MOMUS, 14 February
  • 2023 Vasia Rigou, ‘Build your own narrative’, Chicago Reader, 19 July
    Matthew Ryan Smith, ‘Raw Canvas Riot: Brenda Draney’s Negative Space’, BlackFlash 40.1, Summer
    Rhys Edwards, ‘Caro Deschênes at Afternoon Projects, Brenda Draney at Catriona Jeffries, and Karice Mitchell at Wil Aballe’, Whitehot Magazine, June
    Robb Jamieson, ‘Spring Into the Season With These Art Shows’, Elle, 11 May
    Terence Dick, ‘Brenda Draney at The Power Plant, Toronto’, Akimbo, 16 March
    Kate Taylor, ‘Power Plant gallery emerges from tumult with disjointed shows’, The Globe and Mail, 1 March
  • 2020 Simone Joseph, ‘Cree artist's childhood passion exhibited at McMichael Gallery in Vaughan’, York Region, 26 February
  • 2019 Jade Boivin, ‘Brenda Draney’, Vie Des Arts, n 256, Autumn
    Jasmine Inglis, 'Stories in the Blank Spaces: Brenda Draney's "aspen"', NGC Magazine, 21 June
  • 2018 Murray Whyte, ‘At Oakville Galleries, Brenda Draney asks you to complete the picture’, Toronto Star, 23 July
  • 2017 Robert Enright and Brenda Draney, ‘Optimistic Hybridities’, Border Crossings, 143
  • 2013 Fish Griwkowsky, ‘Preview: Edmonton Artist Paints Bravely in new AGA Exhibit’, Edmonton Journal, December
  • 2010 Amy Fung, ‘Exhibition Reviews: Brenda Draney’, Galleries West, Summer
    Amy Fung, ‘Brenda Draney: Thanks for the Memories’, Canadian Art, 25 March
    Fish Griwkowsky, ‘Filling in the Gaps with Imagination and Redefinition’, Edmonton Sun, 25 March
  • 2009 Leah Sandals, ‘Brush to Judgement’, The National Post, 28 October

Books and Exhibition Catalogues

  • 2023 Jacqueline Kok, Adelina Vlas, eds. Brenda Draney: Drink from the river, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada; Hantje Cantz, Berlin, Germany
  • 2022 Iliana Fokianaki, Billie Rae Belcourt, and Nicolaus Schafhausen, eds., Brenda Draney Smelling Salts, Shorefast Foundation, Shorefast, Canada
  • 2020 Nicolaus Schafhausen, Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, NS Dokumentationszentrum, Hirmer Verlag, Münich, Germany
  • 2019 Brigitte Oetker and Nicolaus Schafhausen (eds.), What do we know?, Sternberg Press, Berlin, Germany
    Lisa Myers, Carry Forward / Post Script, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, and the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre, Canada
    Nicolaus Schafhausen, Smelling Salts, Fogo Island Gallery, Canada
  • 2018 Kimberly Phillips, 13 Ways to Summon Ghosts, Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art, North Vancouver, Canada
  • 2017 Nicolaus Schafhausen, Belonging to a Place: An Exhibition by Fogo Island Arts, Scrap Metal Gallery, Toronto, Canada
  • 2015 Naomi Potter, ed., Wonder and Resonance: Fiction/Non-fiction, Esker Foundation, Calgary
  • 2013 Kristy Trinier, Brenda Draney: Suspend, Art Gallery of Alberta
    Amy Fung, They Made a Day Be a Day Here, Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, Mendel Art Gallery, University of Manitoba
  • 2010 Ben Reeves, ‘Less and More: The Painting of Brenda Draney,’ in Brenda Draney: Hold Still, Latitude 53, Edmonton
  • 2009 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto, Canada

Published Writing and Works by the Artist

  • 2020 Brenda Draney, ‘White Pine’, in A Like Vision: The Group of Seven & Tom Thomson, Goose Lane Editions, Fredericton, Canada
  • 2018 Brenda Draney, ‘Dr.Phil’, Inuit Art Quarterly, 31.4, Winter
  • 2017 Brenda Draney, ‘Every Territory is an Island’, in $5 Handshake, Simon Fraser University Galleries, Burnaby, Canada
  • 2015 Brenda Draney, ‘Of course this isn’t true. It just feels like it.’, in Wonder and Resonance: Fiction/Non-fiction, Esker Foundation, Calgary, Canada
    Brenda Draney, Zoe, Publication Studio, Edmonton, Canada

Residencies

  • 2019 Fogo Island Arts, Shorefast Foundation, Shorefast, Canada
  • 2017 Fogo Island Arts, Shorefast Foundation, Shorefast, Canada
  • 2013 The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada
  • 2010 The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada
  • 2007 The Banff Centre, Banff, Canada

Awards

  • 2016 Shortlist, Sobey Art Award, Canada
  • 2014 Eldon and Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Art Prize, Canada
  • 2013 Longlist, Sobey Art Award, Canada
  • 2011 Project Grant Canada Council for the Arts
  • 2009 11th Annual RBC Canadian Painting Competition, Canada
  • 2007 Emily Carr Institute First Nations Awards, Vancouver