EMBASSY CULTURAL HOUSE
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Suzy Lake

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Suzy Lake at Big Ideas lecture.
Suzy Lake is originally from Detroit, Michigan, USA and since 1968 has made Canada her home. She completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at Concordia University, Montreal in 1980. She is an internationally recognized artist presently based in Toronto, Canada. She is known to be among the first female artist to adopt performance, video, and photography to explore the politics of gender, aging, the body, and identity. Lake’s work critiques the ideals of these notions by drawing attention to social norms and constraints. By incorporating herself into her work, the body not only becomes both subject and device, it also develops an understanding of the social restrictions for women.  She has participated in significant conceptual and feminist exhibitions such as WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution (LA MOCA and tour, 2007-08), Identity Theft: Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershman, Suzy Lake, 1972-1978 (Santa Monica Museum of Art, 2007), Held Together With Water (Sammlung Verbund, Vienna and tour, 2008) and Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-80 (Art Museum at University of Toronto and tour, 2010). Her work is currently on view in Pictures Revisited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on NYC. 

Lake was a founding member of Vehicule Art Inc., Montreal in 1972 and later TPW, the Toronto Photographers Workshop.  Concurrent to her practice, Lake taught for 40 years in various institutions including Montreal, Toronto, Guelph and received Professor Emerita status from the University of Guelph in 2008.  In 2013, Suzy was awarded the Dazibao artist book prize and launched Suzy Lake: Performing an Archive in 2015.  In 2014 the Art Gallery of Ontario presented a full-career retrospective titled Introducing Suzy Lake. An Art Canada Institute monogram on her work will be launched in winter 2021. Suzy Lake is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.  In 2016, she was the recipient of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts and the Scotiabank Photography Award.   

Suzy Lake is currently represented by Georgia Scherman Projects in Toronto. (I am no longer with Donald Brown or Solway Jones) Suzy continues to address the relationship of the individual to societal forces to reveal constructions and restraints that have been built into our culture. In 1985, Lake had a solo exhibition Recent Work at the Embassy Cultural House and is participating in the Hiding in Plain Sight inaugural virtual exhibition on October 30, 2020.  Please visit her website for more information.


 Art Works 

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Choreographed Puppet 2011 UTAC installation, 1976-77
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Imitations of myself, 1973-2012
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Rhythm of a True Space, 2008
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Suzy Lake as Gary William Smith, 1973-74
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Performing Haute Couture #1, 2014
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Pre-Resolution-Using the Ordinances at Hand #7, 1985
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Pre-Resolution Using the Ordinances at Hand #10, 1985
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Back-Room Boys, 2019


EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS 
 
Jamelie Hassan 
& Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & 
Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, 
Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt

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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 

The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
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The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.
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Our Partners

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E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.

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  • Home
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  • Community
    • Advisors & Editorial Team
    • Contributors
    • Governor General Laureates
    • In Memoriam
  • Exhibitions
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • Background
    • Past Programming >
      • Exhibitions 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Curators
        • Index of Photographers
        • Index of Visual Artists
      • Film 1983-1990
      • Music 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Musicians
      • Performances 1983-1990 >
        • Index of Performers
    • Embassy Hotel History
  • About