Inside the AGO’s First Thursdays with artist Suzy Lake and her stylish fans

by Randi Bergman November 7, 2014

AGO First Thursdays Suzy Lake — Photography by Jenna Marie Wakani

Last night, the Art Gallery of Ontario came alive for a special edition of First Thursdays, its monthly after-hours arty party, in honour of Suzy Lake. The Toronto-based artist was in attendance to celebrate her just-opened exhibit Introducing Suzy Lake as well as to thrill guests with her pop up performance as Suzy Spice (yes, you’re getting that reference right) in a delightfully tacky leopard-print getup. The retrospective exhibit features many of Lake’s female identity-driven works, including the arresting 88-portrait “Are you Talking to Me?” (exhibited for the first time in its entirety since the eighties) and “Performing Haute Couture,” a self portrait of the artist wearing a dynamic piece from Comme des Garçons.

Performances paying homage to her work were strewn throughout the gallery, from artist Amelia Ehrhardt’s re-enactment of Lake’s mid-seventies piece “Who Pulls the Strings?” to makeup artist Margot Keith’s transformation of willing guests into Conchita Wurst, the Austrian drag EuroVision winner (dubbed “Sensitive and Insecure,” it encouraged guests to see themselves in a new light).

A stylish group of fans would suit Lake’s work, which deals so skillfully in self-perception and that certainly shone through last night, with fashion forward partygoers—many in Jeremy Laing—filling the exhibit’s space. Flip through our gallery for a snapshot of the amazing event.