Erna Hécey Gallery is pleased to present Seasons by Czech-born Canadian artist Jana Sterbak.

Jana Sterbak’s recent works are loosely based on the six landscape paintings made by Pieter Brueghel for the home of wealthy Antwerp merchant Niclaes Jongelinck in 1565. Bruegel’s use of landscape defies easy interpretation, and demonstrates perhaps the artist’s greatest innovation. Jana Sterbak conceived of the videos while completing her installation “From here to there,” filmed entirely in Northern Canada after a 12-year absence from the winters of her adoptive country. (“From here to there” was presented in the Canadian pavilion of the 2003 Venice Biennial.)

Sterbak’s videos are presented on flat screens comparable in size to the Brueghel’s five surviving panels. Emulating the style of the Flemish master, the videos’ high resolution makes them jewel-like and scintillating, each opening a window onto highly detailed miniature universe. All three videos made to date were filmed north of the 45th parallel, and unlike the renaissance paintings which show man engaged in agricultural pursuits, these moving images present scenes of leisure activities.

But these works are not simply a contemporary retelling of the renaissance masterpieces. They rather serve to question the conventions and uses of landscape representation in art and popular culture. They celebrate the passing of time, a frequent preoccupation of the artist, in the context of contemporary urban culture’s nostalgia for the great outdoors, the ‘natural’ world.

Jana Sterbak is well known for her performance work in the 70's and 80's, dealing primarily with issues of power and sexuality. She works in different media, including sculptures, installations, photography, video, and performance.
Sterbak represented Canada in 2003 at the Venice Biennial. She has had many solo exhibitions worldwide, including Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium (2006); Carré d'Art, Nîmes, France (2006); Haus der Kunst, München (2002); and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1998).