Jana Sterbak Overview

Jana Sterbak (born 1955) is a Canadian artist best known for her works constructed from meat. Two sculptures, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987) and Chair Apollinaire (1999), were both works whose primary medium was cured flank steak also... [more]

Jana Sterbak (born 1955) is a Canadian artist best known for her works constructed from meat. Two sculptures, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic (1987) and Chair Apollinaire (1999), were both works whose primary medium was cured flank steak also known as "skirt steak". Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Sterbak immigrated as a teenager with her parents to Edmonton, Alberta in 1968. Then to Vancouver in 1970 at Kitsilano High School. A year at University of British Columbia in 1974 was followed by a transfer to Montreal. She acquired her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977 at Montréal's Concordia University, Her MFA at University of Toronto in 1982. Sterbak's works deal primarily with issues of power, sexuality, and control, and she also explores the relationship between humanity and the technology it has created. Her Standard Lives - Abridged was displayed in the centre of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in September-October 1990. [show less]