The works in this exhibition encompass two different series – the first are the pop art inspired quilt paintings.  As a child, Garneau was fascinated by quilts his mother made from the family’s old clothes. Each blanket held intimate memory fragments of a generation: traces of their personal lived experiences and the tastes of that decade’s popular culture. He often lay in bed making up stories inspired by these collages. The Hat Makes the Man for example, is a collage/quilt of mid-last century Classics Illustrated comic books that the artist read in his youth.  The speech bubbles are left blank to encourage viewers to make up their own stories while the playful design alludes to the clash of Settlers and First Nation. This series of paintings suggest that, for better or worse, popular culture forms our early imaginations, sense of history and self.

Garneau’s hyper-realistic still life work features books, rocks, fish, and twine arranged to represent the joys and struggles of being a contemporary Indigenous person, academic and artist. As Garneau explains, Indigenous knowledge keepers often feel conflicted about turning their stories into English text – on some level they fear that books will displace them and that text and English do not fully communicate their cultural knowledge.  Most of the rocks in these paintings represent grandfathers (stones) and traditional ways of knowing and being. The books typically stand for ‘book learning’ and colonial learning institutions. Juxtaposed stones and books, then, suggests the tension between wisdom shared orally and through the written word, and the tension Indigenous learners may feel in non-Indigenous institutions. A critical writer, Garneau attempts to infuse the still life genre with concepts which are represented visually and through his playful titles. Ultimately, he explains, his paintings are about stimulating thought and empathetic feeling through beauty and humour.

David Garneau has delivered keynotes in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and throughout Canada on issues such as reconciliation, public art, museum displays and Indigenous contemporary art. His paintings are held in numerous public and private collections including The Canadian Museum of History; The Mackenzie Art Gallery; Mendel Art Gallery; Dunlop Art Gallery; The Glenbow Museum; NONAM, Zurich; Musée de la civilisation, Québec Cty; Imperial Oil; University of Regina; University of Lethbridge; University of Guelph; University of Alberta, Faculté Saint-Jean, and The Alberta Foundation for the Arts.