Métis painter, writer, curator, and educator, David Garneau Credit: Photo supplied by Madelein Maillet
Welcome to another edition of Small Change. Today, I’m honoured to be speaking with multi-talented David Garneau.
David Garneau is a Métis painter, writer, curator, and educator who creates metaphorical still life paintings. Based on Treaty 4 lands, Saskatchewan, David Garneau is one of Canada’s foremost Métis artists, painters, and public intellectuals, who has been leading the charge in complex conversations around the nuances of Métis identity and the politics of Indigeneity, Indigenization, and non-colonial aesthetics in the colonized lands of Canada.
David is the winner of the 2023 Governor General’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Visual and Media Arts as well as being awarded the 2025 Gabriel Dumont Sliver medal which is awarded to individuals who have provided outstanding service to the Métis people in Canada by their community.
Today, I’m speaking with David about his brilliant book that launched in March called, Dark Chapters: Reading The Still Lives of David Garneau.
Book cover for Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau Credit: Photo supplied by Madelein Maillet
Dark Chapters brings together 17 poets, fiction writers, curators, and critics to engage with paintings from David’s still life series of the same name. The poetry, fiction, critical analysis, and autotheory – the combing of elements of autobiography, memoir, fiction, and critical theory – were written by such distinguished contributors as Fred Wah, Paul Seesequasis, Jesse Wente, Lillian Allen, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Larissa Lai and Susan Musgrave.
David, an accomplished writer in his own right, explains why he assembled such an impressive lineup of folks to write about what they saw in his brilliant paintings and how those interpretations caused him to take a second look at his work and the meanings it conveys.
In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports, Justice Murray Sinclair describes the residential school system as “one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history.” David and I discuss why he chose this dark historical chapter for the theme of his exhibition and book.
David’s still life paintings combine everyday objects like books, bones, teacups and mirrors with a Métis sash, a stone hammer and a braid of sweet grass. But the objects are often precariously situated in a manner that’s reflective of the complexities of contemporary Indigenous experiences. Still other paintings explore colonialism, vertical and lateral violence, Christian influence on traditional knowledge and museum treatment of Indigenous belongings.
The titles David gives his works, including “Métis in the Academy” and “Smudge Before Reading,” asks viewers to consider the mixed influences and loyalties faced by Indigenous students and scholars.
David’s work raises issues that mainstream Canadian governments, institutions and citizens are reticent to have meaningful, actionable dialogues about. So, we discuss how Dark Chapters could be the catalyst that initiates and extends these crucial conversations.
Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau, edited by Nic Wilson and Arin Fay, officially launched on March 6, 2025 at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, SK. Meanwhile, Dark Chapters art exhibition premiered at the Nelson Museum in downtown Nelson, BC, on March 22, 2025 and will be there until June 28, 2025.
This incredible exhibition of unconventional still life paintings will travel to different parts of the country so watch for announcements. In the meantime, Montreal’s Art Mûr is exhibiting a selection of David’s paintings from the continuously growing Dark Chapters series throughout the summer.
And, watch for my upcoming interview with David on Public Parking.
Purchase Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau
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