Suzy Lake

Suzy Lake

Suzy Lake at the University of Toronto Art Centre for her 2011 show Political Poetics
Born June 24, 1947
Detroit,
United States
Education Wayne State University, Concordia University
Known for Photography, conceptual art

Suzy Lake (born 1947) is an American-Canadian artist based in Toronto, Canada, known for her work as a photographer, performance artist and video maker.[1] Using a range of media Lake explores topics including identity, beauty, gender and aging.

Life and work

Using costumes, make-up and props, Lake creates self-portraits for the camera, often by assuming new identities. By highlighting the artifice of her adopted personas, Lake “dramatizes the self-transformation involved in posing for the camera.” An example is Suzy Lake As Patty Hearst, a project Lake made in collaboration with Bill Jones, featuring the artist as the eponymous Hearst[2] Lake’s art has a political dimension in its suggestion that femininity is a construct, one that is socially-imposed, but like all forms of costuming, potentially liberating.

She has been represented by Galerie Gilles Gheerbrant (1974–1977); Jared Sable Gallery (1976–1990), and Paul Petro Contemporary Art (1995 – 2012). Lake is currently represented by Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto (2012 - ); Solway Jones Gallery, Los Angeles (2009 – ); Galerie Donald Browne, Montreal (2010 - ).

Early life and education, 1947–1968

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Lake began her fine art studies at Wayne State University and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1965-1968.[3] During this period she became involved with the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s.[4] She also witnessed the Detroit Race Riots of 1967, one of the deadliest riots to occur in the United States with 43 deaths, 467 injured, and more than 7,200 arrests.[4] Soon after in 1968, Lake immigrated to Canada with her husband to escape the Vietnam War draft.[5][6]

Quebec years, 1968–1978

After moving to Montreal, Lake taught at the Montreal Museum School (1969–1978) and was mentored by the minimalist artist, Guido Molinari. She was active in the early conceptualist art scene in that city. In 1971, Lake became a co-founder, along with twelve other artists, of the artist-run gallery Véhicule Art Inc.[7][8][9] Lake's work during this period was influenced by fellow "camera artists" in Véhicule (including Les Levine) who were using the camera to represent an idea as opposed to documenting reality.[6] This was also a period when Lake began to question her status as a woman and concentrated on the subject of identity in her artworks. In her series of photographs entitled A One Hour (Zero) Conversation with Allan B. made in 1973, she becomes the subject as a camera records her expression at various intervals of a candid conversation with a friend.[10] To emphasize her gestures, Lake used white make-up to cover her face. Lake explains in an interview in 1990, "whiteface in mime eliminates personality. It's called zero: before the character."[10] She then invited her friends and family to circle the photographs in the series most represented her personality.

Noting the influence of the political climate of the 1970s on her work, Lake has said: “I know that I am a feminist, but I can see that my politics originated in human rights issues, civil rights, the FLQ in Quebec and race issues in the States.”[11] Today, Lake’s art is widely recognized to be pioneering. Roberta Smith of the New York Times notes that Lake’s work “parallels and may precede that of Cindy Sherman.”[12] In the 1970s, the two artists were contemporaries; “Cindy Sherman...in fact, invited Lake to exhibit in an early Hallwalls show in 1975.”[13] Today, Lake continues to make work about the body focusing on issues of ageing, and exhibiting her work worldwide.

Major exhibitions

Suzy Lake was the subject of a comprehensive exhibition, Introducing Suzy Lake, at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2014-15.[14]

Honours

Bibliography

Catalogues

Selected books/journals

Selected exhibitions

Selected public collections

References

  1. ↑ "Suzy Lake". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  2. ↑ Karen White (1947-06-14). "Suzy Lake". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  3. ↑ Hanna, Martha (1993). Suzy Lake: Point of Reference. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. p. 1. ISBN 0-88884-564-2.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Suzy Lake". Ryerson University, School of Image Arts. 2000-01-28. Retrieved 2013-04-26.
  5. ↑ "Suzy Lake". Suzylake.ca. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution. Los Angeles, California: The MIT Press. 2007. p. 258. ISBN 0914357999.
  7. ↑ "P027 – Véhicule Art (Montréal) Inc. fonds | Concordia University Archives". Archives3.concordia.ca. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  8. ↑ "Véhicule Press — Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia". En.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Hanna, Martha (1993). Suzy Lake: Point of Reference. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. p. 6. ISBN 0-88884-564-2.
  11. ↑ "Suzy Lake: Renaissance Woman". Magenta Magazine. 2010-11-29. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  12. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/03/arts/design/03gall.html?pagewanted=print
  13. ↑ Gaasch, Cynnie (2006-01-19). "When Everything Old is New Again: Suzy Lake at Hallwalls". Artvoice.com. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  14. ↑ Uhlyarik, Georgiana, ed. (2014). Introducing Suzy Lake. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario. ISBN 9781908966735.
  15. ↑ "Members since 1880". Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
  16. ↑ "Suzy Lake: Political Poetics". Utac.utoronto.ca. 2011-06-25. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  17. ↑ "DONNA: FEMINIST AVANT-GARDE OF THE 1970s". e-flux. 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  18. ↑ "Justina M. Barnicke Gallery: Traffic | Hart House — University of Toronto". Harthouse.ca. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  19. ↑ "identity theft: eleanor antin, lynn hershman, suzy lake, 1972-1978". Smmoa.org. Retrieved 2012-08-05.
  20. ↑ http://www.moca.org/museum/exhibitiondetail.php?id=373
  21. ↑ "The Unseen Cindy Sherman: Early Transformations (1975-1976)". Tfaoi.com. 2004-08-01. Retrieved 2012-08-05.

External links