Braxton Garneau is a visual artist based in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Canada). He holds a BFA from the University of Alberta and has had solo exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (2024), Efraín López, New York (2024), GAVLAK, Los Angeles (2023) and Stride Gallery, Calgary (2021). His work was featured in the exhibitions Land, Sea, Sugar, Salt: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean, Remai Modern (2025), Black Every Day, Art Gallery of Alberta (2021), and It's About Time: Dancing Black in Canada 1900 - 1970 and Now, Mitchell Art Gallery, Edmonton (2020). In 2024, his work Pitch Lake (Pietà) was acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego through the Northern Trust Purchase Prize at EXPO Chicago, and he was awarded the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award. From March-June 2025, he will be in residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY.

With a focus on painting, sculpture, printmaking and installation, Garneau’s practice is rooted in materiality, costuming and transformation. Working in-between cultures, he combines visual influences from classical and contemporary forms with material investigations to consider cultural, social and historical implications.

Garneau is interested in what he refers to as “material honesty,” or the idea that the use of living matter can imbue work with their essence and power. Exploring and exploiting the physical qualities of materials, Garneau works with harvested and hand-processed mediums including asphalt, raffia, cotton, linen, sugarcane pulp, bones and shells.

Garneau’s work investigates transformation through both natural cycles and the inherent human tendency for adornment, costuming and masquerade. Connecting materials, customs and clothing, he explores the ability of the natural world, and of the people in it, to adapt and transmute to whatever circumstances they may find themselves in.

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