Eliza McKenna (b. 1997, Woodstock, NY) is an artist and mystic based in New York's Hudson Valley. Her work moves between photography, writing, and experimental materials to explore grief, memory, and consciousness within and beyond the body. She is interested in the image’s potential to uncover our thoughts, feelings, and unconscious beliefs.
McKenna works within an idealist paradigm in which consciousness exists as the underlying reality of all physical form. Her practice is rooted in a desire to build visual systems for organizing her connection to this fundamental Source energy. Drawing from Eastern thought, philosophy, and mystical systems, she investigates what remains after death, how presence and absence manifest in form, and her own perception. Photography often serves as a starting point of investigating the world around her, but she moves beyond traditional representation into layered surfaces, text, and objecthood that invite viewers to interact and bring their unique historical consciousness to the image.
She holds a BA in Film Studies from Wesleyan University and an MFA in Photography from Pratt Institute. Her work has grown through dialogue with both intellectual and mystical traditions, situating her within a lineage of artists seeking to bring to light the ways art can expand human perception.
Email: eliza@elizamckenna.com
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EDUCATION
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY — MFA August 2020 - July 2023
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT — BA August 2016 - May 2020
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibition, You Were Young and So Was I, EMACK Studio June 2025
Group Exhibition, A Testament to Loss, Too Tired Project May 2024
MFA Thesis Show, Pratt Institute May 2023
Group Exhibition, AIR Show, The Byrdcliffe Guild May-June 2023
Group Exhibition, The Portrait, Praxis Photo Arts Center July 2022
Group Exhibition, Annual Juried Art Competition, South Arkansas Arts Center July 2022
Group Exhibition, Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Schmucker Gallery at Gettysburg College June 2022
Group Exhibition, Open Vision, Decode Gallery March 2022
Virtual Group Exhibition, ECOSYSTEM X, MOZAIK Philanthropy January 2022
Photo Book, Magic Hour, Booooooom February 2021
Magazine Feature, Intercut Magazine February 2018
PRESS
“Not Only a Place, But a Feeling” Pratt Institute November 2023
“30 artists under 30 in the Hudson Valley” Times Union December 2023
ARTIST TALKS
Photographing Intimacy / Photographing Relationships Workshop, StrudelMediaLive February 2025
“Meet the Artist” with Six Hudson Valley Photographers Under 30, Center for Photography at Woodstock March 2024
RESIDENCIES
Arteles Silence Awareness Existence, Haukijärvi, Finland February - March 2026
Byrdcliffe Arts Colony AiR April - August 2022
AWARDS
Shortlisted Photographer Royal Photographic Society August 2024
Finalist Film Photo Award Fall 2022
Featured Art Prize Future Art Awards: Ecosystem X Mosaik Philanthropy 2021