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Suzy Lake
Suzy Lake.JPG
Suzy Lake outside the Galerie Donald Browne, Montreal, before her 2011 exhibition Reduced Performing
Born (1947-06-24) June 24, 1947 (age 78)
Detroit,
United States
Education Wayne State University, Concordia University
Known for Photographer, conceptual artist

Suzy Lake (born June 24, 1947) is an American-Canadian artist. She lives in Toronto, Canada. She is famous for her work as a photographer, performance artist, and video producer.

Suzy Lake uses different types of art to explore ideas. These ideas include who we are (identity), what is considered beautiful, how gender roles affect us, and how we change as we get older (aging). Many people see her as a very important artist who helped start the feminist art movement. She is also known for being a strong supporter of social causes.

Life Story of Suzy Lake

Suzy Lake was born on June 24, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States. She started studying art at Wayne State University and Western Michigan University between 1965 and 1968. During these years, she became involved in important movements. These included the anti-war movement, which was against the Vietnam War, and the civil rights movement, which fought for equal rights for all people. She also saw the Detroit Race Riots of 1967, which were a time of big social unrest.

In 1968, Suzy Lake moved to Canada with her husband. They wanted to avoid the Vietnam War draft, which meant young men had to join the army. They settled in Montreal, where they found themselves in the middle of another big social change called the Quiet Revolution.

Suzy Lake first started as a painter. But in Montreal, she began to try out photography. She often used herself as the model in her pictures. She later earned a special art degree, a Master of Fine Arts, from Concordia University in 1980.

From the 1980s until she retired in 2008, Lake taught at the University of Guelph. When she retired, she was given the special title of Professor Emerita. This means she is still honored for her teaching.

How Suzy Lake's Art Makes an Impact

Suzy Lake creates photo-based self-portraits. This means she takes pictures of herself. She often uses different costumes, make-up, and props to become new characters or identities. Her art shows how easy it can be to trick people when posing for a camera.

One famous example is her project "Suzy Lake As Patty Hearst." In this work, she pretended to be Patty Hearst, a famous person from that time. Another well-known American artist, Cindy Sherman, has said that Suzy Lake's photo-performances influenced her own work.

Suzy Lake has many different collections of her artwork, called portfolios. Each one explores ideas about gender, identity, and beauty. She makes art to show how her actions connect to who she is, or to what people think she is. She uses her photographs, videos, and performances to highlight common social rules and limits.

In an interview, Lake explained why she always uses herself in her art. She said it helps her understand the social limits placed on women.

Suzy Lake uses her art to control how she is seen by others. Her early "On Stage" photos were inspired by her time in Detroit. In these, she photographed herself as a wife and mother. But later, she wanted to create art that challenged these traditional roles. In Montreal, Lake noticed a big difference in power between men and women. She felt that women faced a "glass ceiling" – an invisible barrier that stopped them from moving up. This idea led to her "Choreographed Puppet" photos. More recently, Lake has shown a new idea of beauty. She displays her older body in her portfolio called "Beauty and the Aging Body."

Suzy Lake's Artworks and Projects

Suzy Lake lived in Montreal for about ten years. She taught at the Montreal Museum School from 1969 to 1978. She was also guided by the artist Guido Molinari. She was very active in the early conceptual art scene there. In 1971, Lake helped start an artist-run gallery called Véhicule Art Inc. She was one of twelve artists who founded it.

During this time, Lake's work was influenced by artists who used cameras to show ideas, not just to record reality. This was also when Lake started to focus on the topic of identity. In her 1973 photo series called A One Hour (Zero) Conversation with Allan B., she is the main subject. The camera records her expressions during a real conversation with a friend. To make her expressions stand out, Lake used white face make-up. Then, she asked her friends and family to circle the photos that best showed her personality. Much of her work in the 1970s featured herself as the subject, including works like Choreographed Puppets from 1976–77.

Lake moved to Toronto in 1978. There, she became involved in the growing community of contemporary photography. From the mid-1980s until 1994, Lake stopped appearing as the subject in her own work. Instead, she focused on using her camera for more direct activism. One important work from this time is a series of photographs she made with the Teme-Augama Anishnabai Band of Bear Island in Temagami, Ontario. These photos helped bring more public attention to their land claim.

Suzy Lake continues to create art about the female body, now focusing on the process of aging. Her work is shown in exhibitions all around the world.

Important Ideas in Her Art

In an interview, Suzy Lake talked about how the political events of the 1970s influenced her art. She 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." This shows that her art is deeply connected to social justice.

In 2006, Roberta Smith of the New York Times compared Lake's work to that of Cindy Sherman. However, another art critic, Thomas Micchelli, suggested that Lake actually influenced Sherman when they were in school. Both artists were active in the 1970s. In 1975, Sherman even invited Lake to show her work in an exhibition in New York.

Suzy Lake's performances are often seen as being influenced by other performance art movements of her time. As a strong anti-war activist, Lake supported artists like Hans Haacke. These artists used their work to question institutions that supported the Vietnam War. Lake's art became even more focused on activism in the late 1980s. Many people believe this was due to her friendship with the Teme-Augama Anishnabai of Bear Island. She created a series of works for them in the early 1990s.

Lake was considered an early example of "body art." This is because many of her performances involved her own body in a physical way. While living in Montreal, Lake worked with several important theater and performance groups. These included the Judson Dance Theater. Together, they created performances that explored how human bodies interact with objects and spaces around them. Other works by Lake explore the connection between the body and power, often by showing acts of destruction.

Major Art Shows

Suzy Lake had a big exhibition called Introducing Suzy Lake at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2014–15. This show looked back at all her important works. In 2016, she won the Scotiabank Photography Award. This led to another major exhibition of her work in 2017 at the Ryerson Image Center (RIC) in Toronto.

Selected Exhibitions

Selected Public Collections

Suzy Lake's art can be found in many public art collections around the world, including:

Awards and Honors

Suzy Lake is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. This is a special group that honors important Canadian artists. In 2016, she received the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. This is one of Canada's highest honors for artists. She also won the Scotiabank Photography Award in the same year.

Art Galleries That Represent Her

Suzy Lake has been represented by several art galleries over the years. These galleries help show and sell her artwork. Some of them include Galerie Gilles Gheerbrant (1974–1977), Jared Sable Gallery (1976–1990), Paul Petro Contemporary Art (1995–2012), Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto (2012–?), Solway Jones Gallery, Los Angeles (2009–?), and Galerie Donald Browne, Montréal (2010–?). As of 2024, she is represented by Bradley Ertaskiran in Montreal.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Suzy Lake para niños

  • "Suzy Lake: Interview With A Maker of Change" BY BILL CLARKE, MARCH 5, 2013
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