Brenda Draney is an artist from Edmonton who studied painting at Emily Carr University in Vancouver before she received the RBC Canadian Painting Competition in 2009 and long-listed for the 2013 Sobey Art Award. Draney’s practice is based on her experiences and the relationships formed between her current hometown of Edmonton and the northern community of Slave Lake, Alberta, where she was raised. This solo exhibition will feature a large panorama of Draney’s paintings, hung in a salon-style installation throughout the space, depicting a large-scale narrative of scenes and fragments from the artist’s memories.
These fleeting images will be rendered in Draney’s signature minimalist style, in sparse compositions with calculated gestures that demonstrate the materiality of painting, suspending the forms across the surface of the canvas. The work will illustrate the narratives that unfold as the artist’s family and community undergo the process of rebuilding after a recent devastating forest fire.
The RBC New Works Gallery features new artworks by Alberta artists. Initiated in 1998 and named the RBC New Works Gallery in 2008, this gallery space continues the Art Gallery of Alberta’s tradition of supporting Alberta artists.