Sources: Wikipedia, RuPaul Drag Race, MN Monthly
Utica Queen, also known commonly as simply Utica, is the stage name of Ethan Mundt, a drag queen based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and a contestant on Season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Utica, regularly performed in Minneapolis, but Utica’s creator—the maestro behind the makeup, Ethan Mundt—had grown up on a farm about two hours southeast. That hometown being called Utica, Minnesota, so that is where she assumed the name Utica.
Utica started getting interested in makeup while she was in college, and picked up on techniques through videos she saw on YouTube. Also a designer and creates a lot of the outfits she wears. Utica sharpened her performance chops at Minneapolis venues like Union and Lush.
Utica gave Drag Race a kaleidoscopic twist as the season’s most fantastical “look queen.” Her breakout moment arrived in a sleeping bag that she tailored to fan out in breathtaking Björk-ery. At times cartoonish, at times statuesque, Utica had either emerged from a Renaissance fresco or popped out of a panel in the Sunday funnies.
Utica came in sixth out of 13, Mundt is now making a case for the creative fecundity of one’s provenance. “I wanted to pay homage to all of the love and the spirits that I got from my little small town,”. In 2021, some of the outfits Utica worn on RuPaul’s Drag Race was displayed at the Rochester Art Center.
Sources: Wikipedia, RuPaul Drag Race, MN Monthly