Jana Sterbak completed studies in art at the Vancouver School of Art (1973-1974), the University of British Columbia (1974-1975), Concordia University (1977) and the University of Toronto (1980-1982). She traveled to New York, Toronto and Paris before settling permanently in Montreal. In 1990 and 2003, she took part in the Venice Biennale. Her work has earned her a number of prestigious awards: the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (1993), the Prix Ozias-Leduc (1995), a Chalmers Award from the Ontario Art Council (2000) and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2012). She has been featured in exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide, and her work can be found in numerous public collections. Sterbak’s unique, provocative style has never strayed from the tone she first set in the eighties with I want you to feel the way I do (The Dress), a transparent dress fashioned from uninsulated nickel-chrome wire and accompanied by projected text (1985), and Vanitas. Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic, a dress made entirely of meat (1987). Seduction, power and feminine identity are recurring themes in her work, emphasizing the tension between a woman’s desire to be free and her desire to protect herself, between her private life and her public life. Her sculptures, installations, performances and videographic work serve as a vehicle for her political engagement, incorporating caustic humour to reinforce her criticisms.
SEE:
« Dissiper l’illusion, mais laquelle? : Jana Sterbak au Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal » by Jennifer Couëlle, ESPACE #30, p. 41.
« Vanitas : Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic » by Johanne Lamoureux, ESPACE #51, p. 14.
« Fissures d’art dans l’hyperréel politique » by Guy Sioui Durand, ESPACE #55, p. 30.
« Re-Making Artwork : Its existence as an exhibition and the artist’s attitude concerning its reconstruction » by Richard Gagnier, ESPACE #69, p. 10.
« L’année-Machine » by Natasha Hébert, ESPACE #80, p. 31.
« 1996, Jana Sterbak, I Want You to Feel the Way I Do » by Francine Couture, ESPACE #81, p. 20.
« Résidence d’artistes à Est-Nord-Est : Entretien avec Natalie Lafortune », ESPACE #68, p. 32.
« Brendan Tang, Micah Lexier, The Shed Show, Barb Hunt, Jana Sterbak » by Gil McElroy, ESPACE #100, p. 40.
