Suzy Lake

Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1947, Lake studied painting and printmaking at Wayne State University (1966-1968), and immigrated to Montreal in 1968, after the Detroit Riots, and at the height of the Vietnam War. It was during this period that her political convictions were forged. Her work has since continued to investigate the relationship of the individual to larger, societal forces and the social construction of identity.

In Montreal, Lake's commitment to community activism led to involvement in artist-run initiatives. Lake was among the artists who created Véhicule Arts Inc., a pioneering artist-run centre in 1971. In Montreal she also taught painting and drawing and was Guido Molinari's studio assistant. After moving to Toronto in 1978, she became a founding member of Toronto Photographer's Workshop (now Gallery TPW), an internationally-recognized venue for photo-based arts. Through this network Lake came into contact with Vito Acconci, Bill Viola, Denis Oppenheim, Rebecca Horn and Eleanor Antin among others.

Lake has been steadily exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia and is represented in important national and international private and public collections. Her artistic activity is paralleled by a post-secondary teaching career as a professor in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph (1978-2008). Her commitment to her students and her role as a mentor, inside and outside the academy, has received as much energy as her practice. For Lake, her roles as artist and teacher are inseparable.