Rita Keegan
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Rita Keegan is an internationally recognised artist, lecturer, and archivist, who was made an honorary fellow of Goldsmiths in 2022.
Born in the Bronx in 1949, of Caribbean and Black-Canadian descent, Rita studied Fine Art at the San Francisco Art Institute and moved to London in 1980.
She co-founded the Brixton Art Gallery in 1982, established the Women of Colour Index (WOCI) in 1987, and was Director of the African and Asian Visual Arts Archive (AAVAA) until 1994.
For many years, she was a lecturer in multimedia arts at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Her work explores memory, history, dress and adornment, often through the use of her extensive family archive – a photographic record of a black middle class Canadian family dating from the 1890s to the present day.
She has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including the South London Gallery and the British Museum, London; Arnolfini, Bristol; Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; and the Studio Museum in Harlem and Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.
Rita Keegan was awarded an honorary fellowship in 2022 by Goldsmiths.
Image: 'Rita Keegan with Lily in the studio, 2021', Lewis Khan