"I love everything about the visual arts and these enthusiasms are reflected in my various practices. I paint and draw and have made several videos and performance art pieces. I am a critical arts writer, editor, and curator. I teach painting, drawing and criticism in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
I am interested in visuality and representation, but in the studio work, writing and curation, I tend to focus on ideas about nature and culture, masculinity, and ethnicity-especially Metis heritage."
- David Garneau
"...Garneau's work also delves into the issues surrounding existing stereotypes of Aboriginal people, and how we internalize them when coming to terms with our ancestry. In How the West Was... Garneau has created a history painting about the settlement of the Canadian Plains using images taken from non-Aboriginal art historical and pop-culture sources. The work is reminiscent of other Aboriginal artists investigation into the impact of stereotypes, perpetuated by the use of Cowboy and Indian imagery, dime novels, etc. However Garneau expands the issue, by introducing his own family history into the stereotypical imagery, thus his personal stake, while acknowledging that Métis culture has also had to endure stereotypical ideals - an aspect that hasn't really been researched by these other artists."
Excerpt from David Garneau's Métis Self and I - A Work in Progress
by Cathy Mattes
Cowboys and Indians (and Métis?)
David Garneau
September 5 - October 4, 2003
