Brenda Draney: Medium of Exchange

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Brenda Draney, "Vanity," 2019

oil on canvas, 20" x 25"

On June 7 there will be an artist talk from 6:30 to 7 pm, followed by the exhibition opening from 7 to 9 pm.

Memory is vital to our understanding of our lives, yet flawed, misremembered and coloured with individual experience. Forgotten and confused details are what create the absence of content in Brenda Draney’s artistic style. Draney’s exhibition Medium of Exchange is a beautiful example of the illusory nature of her work, which will be on exhibit at Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History this summer.

Draney’s work visually represents the moment when vulnerability is exposed, while encouraging the viewer to resist the impulse to control the void where discomfort, poignancy, or powerful moments exist. Instead, Draney offers her viewer the opportunity to face this void head on, but as an empath. She provides enough tools for the viewer to place themselves within her typical imaginary spaces.

Brenda Draney is Cree from Sawridge First Nation, Treaty 8, with a strong connection to Slave Lake. Her work is collected and shown across Canada including the National Gallery of Canada, the Embassy of Canada Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Sobey Collection, and the Shorefast Foundation. She shows in Banff, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa. She won both the 2009 RBC Painting Competition and 2014’s Eldon and Anne Foote Visual Arts Prize in Edmonton and was short listed for the 2016 Sobey Art Award at the National Gallery of Canada.