(b. 1962)
Located in CT 217 (Language Institute (La Cité) 2nd floor)
© David Garneau. Reproduced with the permission of the artist. Photograph by the University of Regina.
Au Cœur de la Prairie, 2005
Acrylic on canvas
60″ x 48″
University of Regina President’s Art Collection; pc.2006.5
Métis artist David Garneau was born in Edmonton in 1962. He lived there (1962–1977, 1979–80), and Calgary (1977–1979, 1980–1999), and Regina (1999–present). Growing up with a mother who was also an artist, Garneau has always made art. His first exhibition was at the Bearclaw Gallery in Edmonton in 1980. Garneau’s art is inspired by Alex Janvier (Denesuline and Saulteaux), Joanne Cardinal-Schubert (Kainai), and Bob Boyer (Métis), as well as by Métis traditional beading and numerous Western art history traditions and techniques.
Garneau has been a member of the Visual Arts Department since 1999. He is also a curator and writer who received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art: Outstanding Achievement (2023), was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada (2023), and received The Order of Gabriel Dumont Silver Medal (2025). He is a member of the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan.
Au Cœur de la Prairie (2005) was commissioned by the University of Regina’s Institute français to celebrate the “Resistance and Convergence: Francophone and Métis Strategies of Identity in Western Canada” conference in 2005. The painting recalls the tree located in front of the church at Batoche, a significant historic Métis site in Saskatchewan. This was the primary site of the Métis Resistance of 1885. Riel was executed 6 months later, at the Northwest Mounted Police barracks in Regina. The heart in the tree represents the interrelationship between the Francophone and Métis peoples of the Prairies. The red blood represents Francophones and the blue blood, the Métis.
Last updated: April 1, 2025