“You are who you pretend to be.” — Nan Goldin

ABOUT

Erica Nicole McKeehen (b. 1987, Bucyrus, OH) is a teaching artist, performer, and arts manager in Chicago, IL. Growing up, McKeehen was consumed by her dad’s vast rock n’ roll media collection, and her lifelong fascination with glamorous icons and public persona comes from the music videos, album covers, and photo spreads in Rolling Stone that she studiously viewed.

McKeehen creates self-portraits and poetry and photographs and interviews fellow sex workers and burlesque entertainers. She is most interested in collaborative documentary practices that expand photographer and sitter relationships and building long-term narratives of performers through portraiture, interviews, and writing. McKeehen also curates intimate public panel discussions with her peers in burlesque and sex work. She performs under the moniker Greta-X and co-produces Chicago’s Lust for Life, a rock n’ roll burlesque showcase.

McKeehen received her BS ‘10 from Ohio University, and her MA ‘21 and MFA ‘23, both from Columbia College Chicago. At Columbia, she received the Stuart Abelson Graduate Research Fellowship, the Albert P. Weisman Award, the John Mulvany and Bob Thall Scholarship in Photography, the Fogelson Foundation Photography Scholarship, the Anderson Ranch Award, and the Lya Dym Rosenblum Award.

CV

CONTACT

commissions, inquiries, & love letters: erica.mckeehen@gmail.com

(image by Jessica Hays)