Photograph by Annie France Noël

Lucas Morneau (b. 1994) is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, arts administrator, and curator. Growing up in several towns and cities across the island of Ktaqmtuk/Newfoundland, Morneau spent much of their childhood in Bonavista, Grand Falls-Windsor, St. John’s, and Corner Brook. They are mainly of English-Newfoundland and French-Québecois descent.

Known for employing drag and gender performance as a central tool in their practice, Morneau blends textiles, photography, video, performance, and sculpture to queer Canadian/Newfoundland cultural traditions and pastimes to challenge heteronormativity and homophobia. Morneau has queered hockey in Queer Newfoundland Hockey League to challenge homophobia in Canada’s national sport. They have also queered Newfoundland’s Christmas-time house-visiting, gender bending tradition in The Queer Mummer, blending it with drag revealing their shared historical roots.

Morneau’s artworks are held in permanent collections of several institutions including The Rooms, Global Affairs Canada, and Grenfell Art Gallery. Their solo exhibition Queer Newfoundland Hockey League has been presented at over 15 galleries including Hamilton Artist Inc. (Hamilton, ON), Kamloops Art Gallery (Kamloops, BC), and La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse (Montreal, QC). They have exhibited works surrounding their persona The Queer Mummer at Grenfell Art Gallery (Corner Brook, NL), Acadia University Art Gallery (Wolfville, NS), and Cape Breton University Art Gallery (Sydney, NS). They have exhibited in groups exhibitions and screened video works nationally and internationally including in the USA and UK. They have been artist in residence at multiple artist-run centres, festivals, and foundations across Canada and internationally, including the 2021 Critical Mass Artist Residency in Port Hope, Ontario, the 41e Symposium international d‘art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, and La Napoule Canadian Artist Residency in Mandelieu-La-Napoule, France.

Morneau received the 2016 BMO 1st Art Award for Newfoundland and Labrador and the 2018 Cox & Palmer Pivotal Point Grant. They were shortlisted and longlisted for several awards including the 2018 and 2021 Scotiabank New Generations Photography Award Shortlists and the 2024 Sobey Art Award Longlist. They have also received multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, ArtsNL, and ArtsNB. Morneau graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Memorial University of Newfoundland—Grenfell Campus (2016) and a Master of Fine Arts from University of Saskatchewan (2018). 

Morneau currently live in the Siknikt district of Mi’kma’ki — Sackville, New Brunswick, where they work as the Production Manager for Struts Gallery.