Calgary's Rita McKeough selected for Lieutenant Governor award

Calgary based artist Rita McKeough has been named to receive the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta 2025 Distinguished Artists Award. She is expected to receive the awards’ patron in a ceremony held by Her Honour Salma Lakhani, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta on October 4, 2025.

McKeough has 15 works held in the AFA Art Collection. You can view two these works, Manifesto of Mittenism and Urban Uprising in the AFA art house exhibition, New Views.

About the Artist

Rita McKeough’s interdisciplinary practice spans sound, installation, performance, video, and kinetic sculpture and has significantly shaped the contemporary art landscape in Alberta and beyond. For over five decades, her career has been marked by an unwavering commitment to experimentation, mentorship, and pushing the boundaries of contemporary art in Canada. McKeough has exhibited across Canada and the USA in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Recent works include: Remediation Room (Online, Calgary, 2022–ongoing); feel through deepness to see (Dunlop Art Gallery 2024); darkness is as deep as the darkness is (Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, 2020); 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.

About the Award

The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award is Alberta’s most prestigious recognition of outstanding achievement in the arts.

About the AFA art house

The AFA art house, located in the heart of downtown Calgary, is a space to for Albertans to see, discover, and experience the unique stories the artists of Alberta have to share. The Gallery will showcase works from the AFA Art Collection as well as other works from Alberta artists. The AFA art house is free to access.