Craig Kraft

About the Artist

Over the past 39 years, light sculptor Craig A. Kraft has gained national recognition for his innovative neon light works. Early public artworks include the Falling Man © 1995 sited permanently at the Cell Theatre in New York City. For the last 10 years, Kraft has been working with rolled aluminum and neon to create monumental public art works. His sculptures have been featured in over 135 exhibits throughout the US (14 solo). He was invited to exhibit at both the Busan Biennale: Chasm - Crossing Over 2004 in Korea and Hermandades Escultoricas 2005 in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. He has twice been a featured artist at the International Sculptor’s Conference. Kraft was commissioned to create rolled aluminum and neon light sculptures for Montgomery County, MD, the Downtown Silver Spring, MD Development project, the Rockville, MD Downtown Development Project, The Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA (where his work was selected by Stephen Phillips of the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC), and most recently a large scale sculpture for the Watha T. Daniel Library in Washington, DC. His most recent one person show; Markings, Graffiti from the Ground Zero Blues Club at DC Arts Center was personally endorsed by Victoria Mecklenburg, head curator at the American Museum of Art. A member of the faculty of the Smithsonian Institution Studio Arts Program for 23 years, Kraft received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He has recently rehabbed an abandoned building at 1239 Good Hope Rd SE in Anacostia for his new home and studio. 

Artist's Statement

My work is about the process of making art inspired by hidden, forgotten marks, or peripheral glimpses of fleeting light. Since 1983, the common thread of my work has been neon light. I am interested in light itself, whether used as a glowing line, a volume or as a metaphor. Light is inherently contradictory: tangible yet intangible, substantial yet ephemeral. Emitted light pulls the viewer into the artwork; it is, after all, how we see. Constantly in flux, it begs questions of perception and importance, an apt tool for exploring and illuminating the unfamiliar. The work must be original yet at the same time reflect and relate to its surroundings. I have created sculptural artwork for the past 35 years and public artwork for the past 17 years. Over eighteen works have been sited/commissioned by such entities as The Rhode Island School of Design; Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City, New York; Montgomery County, Maryland; The District of Columbia Arts and Humanities Commission; St. Petersburg, Florida Fine Art Museum; Arlington Art Center, Arlington, Virginia; The Cell, New York City; Honfleur Gallery in Anacostia DC; Embassy Suites Hotel, North Carolina and Colorado; International sculpture exhibitions in the Busan, Korea Biennale, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Merida, Mexico, and most recently Vivace for the Watha T. Daniel Library and the Anacostia Gateway in Washington D.C. I have taught neon light sculpture at the Smithsonian Resident Associates Studio Arts Program for the past 24 years and received three NEA, DCCAH visual arts grants.