Jana Sterbak

Jana Sterbak is a Canadian artist best known for her conceptual sculptures that are made about and in relation to the body.

Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sterbak immigrated in 1968 to Canada as a teenager with her parents. 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 to Montréal to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977 at Concordia University.

It is worth noting the intense Czech culture that Sterbak was surrounded by and continues to appreciate (for example the works of Kafka, Kundera and Čapek) as strong buttressing references in her ironic and often pessimistic artwork. Coming from this background “it is not surprising, then, that the theme of constraint, imposed from within and from without, should have become a major preoccupation in her work” (Nemiroff p. 15).

Sterbak works with the theme of control in pieces such as Remote Control (1989). She created a large metal skirt on wheels that elevates the woman wearing it while its movement is directed by an electric controller held by the viewer. In a conversation with the curator Milena Kalinovska, Sterbak says:

“In a lot of my work one has to decide whether one is the controlling agent or being controlled, and to decided what are the pros and cons of both situations” (Nemiroff p. 47)

The surprising variety of materials used in Sterbak’s sculptures has a Dadaist spirit and is significant in expressing meaning through materials. The meat she used in Vanitas; Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987) has emotional and symbolic value implying death in relation to the piece being worn as a dress by a woman. The network of relations among the materials defines what she calls ‘states of being’ between freedom and restraint. Her work has Surrealist affinities that acknowledge experiences of uncanny and unconscious desires that go beyond reason. She doubles the self in her art through objects that are worn on the body or suggest a presence, and they convey a sense of otherness through a psychic state of being.

Sterbak is a recipient of the 2012 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Solo exhibitions

Public Collections

Awards

2012

1996

1993

1991

References

Jana Sterbak: States of Being. Diana Nemiroff 1991

External links