Suzy Lake was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1947. In 1968, she immigrated to Montreal, Quebec following the 1967 Detroit riots. Influenced by social and political involvement concurrent to the early conceptual period, she is known for her large-scale photography dealing the body as both subject and device.
Lake was one of a pioneering group of artists in the early 70’s artists the to adopt performance, video and photography in order to explore the politics of gender, the body and identity. Early examples of her work form part of two touring exhibitions titled WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution 1965 – 1980, first showing at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art in March of 2007. In April of 2007, her work was featured in Identity Theft: Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershman, Suzy Lake 1972-1978 at the Santa Monica Museum of Art.
Lake’s work continues to use references to the body as a means to investigate notions of beauty in the context of youth and consumer culture. She has a long exhibition career in Canada, and has also shown her work in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia. She is represented by : Georgia Scherman Projects (Toronto), Galerie Donald Browne (Montreal) and Michael Solway (Cincinnati).