Jana Sterbak (born 19 March 1955) is a Canadian artist best known for her works constructed from meat. Two sculptures, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987)[1] and Chair Apollinaire (1996),[2] were both works whose primary medium was cured flank steak also known as skirt steak in the UK butcher trade.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sterbak immigrated as a teenager with her parents to Montréal in 1968, to Edmonton and then to Vancouver in 1970 where she attended Kitsilano High School. She attended the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design) in 1973-74 and the University of British Columbia in 1974-75 before moving back to Montréal to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977 at Concordia University and her MFA at University of Toronto in 1982.
Sterbak's works deal primarily with issues of power, sexuality and control, and she also explores the relationship between humanity and the technology it has created. Her Standard Lives - Abridged was displayed in the centre of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in September–October 1990.