Erika Ritzel grew up in Carbondale, Illinois and now lives in Minneapolis.  She received her BFA from Webster University in St. Louis and her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. A majority of her photographic work deals with space, family, memory, nostalgia, and loss.

 

She received a grant in 2002 from the Illinois Humanities Council to complete a project on the flood of 1993, which destroyed her father’s hometown; a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant in 2008, 2013, and 2018; and has been selected for the second round of the McKnight Fellowship of Photographers twice. Her work has been exhibited at the Palm Springs Art Museum in California, the Minnesota Museum of American Art in St. Paul, the Minnesota Center for Photography, the Coalition of Photographic Arts in Wisconsin, the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, the Medium Festival of Photography in California, the Carlisle Photo Festival in England, and at the GuatePhoto Festival in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

 

Erika is currently photography faculty at Century College and Inver Hills Community College in the twin cities area.