(b. 1962)
Located outside RC 258 (Dr. William Riddell Centre, 2nd floor)
© David Garneau. Reproduced with the permission of the artist. Photograph by the University of Regina.
Batoche Teepee, 2009
Oil on canvas
36 1/2″ x 25″
University of Regina President’s Art Collection; pc.2012.1
Métis artist David Garneau was born in Edmonton in 1962. He has lived and worked in many cities across Canada from Calgary to Halifax to Regina. His first exhibition was at the Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton in 1980. Garneau’s work is inspired by indigenous artists Alex Janvier, Joanne Cardinal-Schubert, and Bob Boyer, as well as by Métis traditional beading. He is currently one of only a handful of Métis artists making work that is both contemporary and directly influenced by Métis material culture.
Batoche Teepee (2009) is a painting of the top section of a tipi. The tipi is a portable dwelling of First Nations design that was adapted with the introduction of European materials such as canvas. Garneau see this adaptation as a métissage, a mixing of two cultures. With regards to the unusual framing of the subject, Garneau states, “I [chose] to paint the tops of these structures to emphasize the meeting of earth (material realm) and sky (metaphysical realm) with a human-made structure as the meeting point.”
In 1994, Garneau accepted a position as Associate Professor in the Visual Arts Department of the University of Regina. Aside from his art and teaching, Garneau is also a curator and writer. He has won awards for curation in Sydney, Australia, as well as for mentorship and art in Saskatchewan.