Brenda Draney: Drink from the River

Dreamlike paintings that welcome viewers into hazy memories from the Canadian artist’s childhood

Edmonton-based First Nations Canadian Brenda Draney (born 1976) paints narrative canvases marked by economical brushstrokes and expanses of white space.
In Drink from the River, documenting her first solo exhibition at Toronto’s Power Plant Art Gallery, Draney portrays scenes of daily life, along with those of singular events, that she leaves open-ended or unspecified. Referencing her own memories and experiences, Draney explores the layered meanings embedded in everyday motifs and situations. Instead of simply reproducing these elements, her works address how their meanings can shift when filtered through individual interpretation.
Draney uses stories and family conversations to make subtle, powerful paintings. Many of these memories are pulled from her childhood, and most center on Slave Lake, the small town in northern Alberta where she grew up. What emerges from the canvas are cloudlike pictures, isolated moments and constellations of ambiguous but connected associations.