Suzy Lake

Born in 1947, artist Suzy Lake changed the course of art history by making herself the centre of her art. Lake studied painting and drawing at university and later became politically involved which contributed to her addressing, through her work, the civil rights unrest throughout the 1960's. In 1968 Lake immigrated to Montreal with her husband to escape the Vietnam war draft and imbued herself in the vibrant art scenes of eastern Canada. Lake assisted the artist Guido Molinari, an artist who became increasingly influential in expanding her views on conceptual art. Lake is well known for her photography and her ability to express what she thinks, feels and believes, always using herself to develop and process an understanding of the social restrictions on women. One of the first female artists in Canada to employ performance, photography and video as a way to explore the ongoing politics of gender, identity and the body as a female form, Lake continued to address societal relationships seeking to reveal the generational restraints of current culture and repeatedly questions the notions of what is acceptable versus what is expected. Lake continued to work and exhibit and has been a featured participant in significant exhibitions such as WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution in 2007-2008, Identity Theft at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 2007, and Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-80 in 2010, to name but a few. In 2013, Lake was awarded the Dazibao artist book prize and launched Suzy Lake: Performing an Archive in 2015.