Jana Sterbak: Dimensions of Intimacy
Esker Foundation, Calgary, AB - Sep 20 – Dec 21
First unveiled in the late 1980s, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorexic (1987) is probably the most recognizable work of Prague-born Canadian artist Jana Sterbak. Sculpted from 50 pounds of raw flank steak, the garment became an enduring cultural touchstone, stirring controversy with visceral imagery revived by Lady Gaga when she wore a meat dress to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards.
Sterbak’s ongoing fascination with the body is at the core of her much-anticipated large-scale retrospective at Esker Foundation in Calgary. Featuring over 50 works from the past 46 years, Jana Sterbak: Dimensions of Intimacy presents a thought-provoking and comprehensive view into Sterbak’s material and conceptual concerns.
Sterbak left Czechoslovakia with her parents in 1968 after the Prague Spring, settling first in Vancouver before moving to Montreal to complete her studies at Concordia University. She represented Canada at the 2003 Venice Biennale, received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2012, and in 2017, she won the Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas (Quebec).
From decadent chocolate bones to dancers suspended inside remote-controlled metal crinolines, Sterbak has redefined contemporary and feminist art through her diverse sculptures, videos, installations and performances. She is known for the way she uses dark humour and materiality to rigorously challenge female subjectivity and stereotypes as well as her exploration of complex themes like mortality, desire, power and the body’s fragility.
The human body is omnipresent in Sterbak’s work, which she wraps, clothes, and imprisons with wires and technological materials. Her work is intimate, beautiful, and boldly political. What emerges across the exhibition is an artist who plays with irony, absurdity, and contradictory states like fear and desire or vanity and decomposition. The exhibition reveals an artist who has a propensity for the darker, more profound forces at play in the human experience and the flesh that embodies it.
Opening reception Sep 19, 6–9pm
