About

Rita McKeough is a performance and installation artist and musician. Born in Antigonish (NS), on the traditional and unceded land of the Mi’kmaq people, McKeough received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Calgary and Master of Fine Arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. McKeough works from a feminist perspective and her recent work has focused on the impact of urban development and resource extraction on the lives and habitat of plants and animals. Rita is known for her large-scale, multilayered installations and performances often comprised of complex audio works and electronic elements. McKeough uses sound as a medium to articulate forces of resistance, giving voice and agency to her subjects.

As a musician, McKeough is a drummer and has been a member of a number of bands dating back to the late 1970s including The Permuters, Sit Com, Mode d’empoli, Almost Even, Demi Monde, Simian Crease, Confidence Band, Books All Over the Bed and most recently Sleepy Panther.

Rita McKeough has shown across Canada and the USA in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Remediation Room (Online, Calgary, 2022–ongoing), darkness is as deep as the darkness is (Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, 2020), dig as deep as the darkness (Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, 2019), Veins (OBORO, Montreal, 2018), and Oh, Canada (MassMOCA, North Adams, 2015). In 2009 McKeough was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Her work has been featured in Radio Rethink: Art Sound and Transmission (Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, 1994), Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women (YYZ Books, 2004) and the monograph Rita McKeough: Works (Emmedia, Truck Contemporary Artist-Run Centre and MST Performative Art Festival, 2018) as well as many articles and reviews in Canadian Art, C Magazine, Galleries West and Sculpture Magazine among others.

Currently, McKeough is Associate Professor of Sculpture and Media Arts at Alberta University of the Arts (formerly Alberta College of Art and Design), based on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations, and Métis Nation (Region 3) in Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta. Rita McKeough credits the support and assistance of her community in the production of her work. As an educator, McKeough is grateful to have worked with many extraordinary students and colleagues throughout her teaching career.