Elliptical Lineages Artist Spotlight - Rita McKeough & Frank McKeough
Posted on
July 07, 2025
Elliptical Lineages presents the work of artists that engage the creative practices of a family member or those whom they consider kin. Curated by Jacqueline Bell, Director, Walter Phillips Gallery and Collections at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Elliptical Lineages is on view from June 7 to September 7, 2025.
The exhibition complicates conventional ideas of artistic lineage and reflects on the exchange of knowledge between generations. Hear directly from a number of the artists exhibiting in Elliptical Lineages as they reflect on their work on view.
Installation view of Elliptical Lineages, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 2025. Frank McKeough, Selection of untitled works, c. 1977-1997, courtesy of the Estate of Frank McKeough. Photo: Rita Taylor.
Rita McKeough & Frank McKeough
I'm showing a piece called Wave over Wave. It was originally built and presented in 2000. And then this year, I just rebuilt it, and we presented it in this show and…we brought it in to show with my father's beautiful carvings. He started carving late in life, and he had been a fisherman so he started using buoys from nets and carving figures, and he carved these beautiful chains. So we've hung two of his chains and all these incredible animals and inventive creatures that he produced. And it was so exciting to be in that room with Wave over Wave and his carvings. What a treat and what an honour it is to show with him.
Rita McKeough
Installation view of Elliptical Lineages, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 2025. Frank McKeough, Selection of untitled works, c. 1977-1997, courtesy of the Estate of Frank McKeough. Photo: Rita Taylor.
He started because he had a wonderful, beautiful friend named Claude Davidson, who was an incredible carver. And he showed my dad how to make his tools, and he encouraged him to carve and encouraged him to express himself.
Rita McKeough
Installation view of Elliptical Lineages, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, 2025. Frank McKeough, Selection of untitled works , c. 1977-1997, courtesy of the Estate of Frank McKeough. Photo: Rita Taylor.
I've had his carvings in my house where I lived for years, ever since he gave them to me in the 70s, 80s, 90s. I've lived with them, and they're so beautiful. I just love having them. But to be in the gallery where other people can see them, and then we can see the relationship between our work and the connections, it's remarkable. And because he's no longer with us, for me, it's extremely special to have an opportunity to show our work together. We had had the honour to have his work shown a couple of times in the past. But having our work together, this is the first time. And it's really a beautiful experience and I'm very, very grateful.
Rita McKeough
About Rita McKeough
Rita McKeough is a performance and installation artist and musician. Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, on the traditional and unceded land of the Mi’kmaq people, McKeough received her BFA from the University of Calgary and MFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax. 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 (2022–ongoing), EMMEDIA, Calgary and online; darkness is as deep as the darkness is (2020) Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; dig as deep as the darkness (2019) Richmond Art Gallery; Veins (2018) OBORO, Montreal; and Oh, Canada (2015) MASS MoCA, North Adams. McKeough was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, Canada Council for the Arts (2009). Her work has been featured in Radio Rethink: Art Sound and Transmission (Banff Centre Press, 1994), Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women (YYZ Books, Toronto, 2004) and the monograph Rita McKeough: Works (EMMEDIA, TRUCK Contemporary Art and Mountain Standard Time Performative Art Festival Society, Calgary, 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), Calgary, 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. 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.
About Frank McKeough
Frank McKeough was born in Afton, Nova Scotia in 1909. As a young man he worked as a lobster fisherman in Bayfield, Nova Scotia and loved to be on the water. McKeough served in World War II on the front lines as a surveyor and eventually at the rank of sergeant, marrying his wife Molly MacPherson prior to departing for overseas. Following World War II, he moved to Antigonish, Nova Scotia where his daughters, Rita and Karen McKeough grew up until the family moved to Vancouver in 1957. McKeough began to carve later in life, during his last job when living in Masset, Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. Following the passing of Molly McPherson, he moved to Salt Spring Island where he lived for twenty-two years, and where McKeough spent a significant amount of time carving before his passing in 1997.
McKeough largely used materials for his sculptures that he found while beach combing, such as driftwood. He also often used cork buoys given to him by local fishermen as the basis for his animal sculptures. McKeough decided at a certain point to gift all of his work and generously shared his sculptures and the wooden chains he carved with children in hospital wards in Alberta and British Columbia, his children Rita and Karen, his grandchildren, and adults and kids alike who expressed interest in his pieces.
Elliptical Lineages
Walter Phillips Gallery at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
107 Tunnel Mtn Drive, Banff
June 7 to September 7, 2025
FREE