Future Forwards – Braxton Garneau

Posted: Feb 25, 2023 in News, Programming

Braxton Garneau Allusion 2022. A drypoint and mezzotint print of the back of a hand closing slightly away from the viewer, printed in black ink. The hand is looped delicately with a vine from the wrist up, which blooms into two heart shapes with rough edges. The hand is moderately shaded except for the fingers, which gradually darken toward the tips at the top of the page. The image is enclosed in an elongated archway.

Future Forwards looks toward emerging and prominent Black artists in the Edmonton, Montréal, and Toronto communities to showcase diverse perspectives and exemplary skill. Read on below to learn about Braxton Garneau, one of 4 artists featured in the project!

Buy the print here!

My current practice combines a variety of harvested and hand-processed materials with printmaking, painting, and installation to create portraits, shrines, and corporeal forms. These materials often share inextricable colonial histories and significant cultural ties to those who’ve spent generations in close proximity to them. Exploring the materiality of culture, I mine my own Caribbean heritage to charge my practice with the essences of animism and masquerade that swirl within Trinidad and Tobago. I aim to merge classical aesthetics and double entendre to cultivate a visual language steeped in burlesque and iconoclasm. Through my practice I explore my own questions of identity as well as it influences and limitations within a Canadian society.

This edition was an opportunity for me to step away from my material focused practice to explore drypoint and mezzotint, both of which were techniques I had not previously worked with. I was very much inspired by the symbolism in Albrecht Dürer’s engravings and other theological artworks from the 15th century.

This programming is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.