Shaina Craft is an American figurative oil painter living in London and working in the realm of contemporary realism. Craft’s technique is grounded in the historical precedent of the Italian Baroque, yet adapted to express a contemporary alternative to the abasement of the female nude. Her practice is informed by an obsession with flesh and bodies, a critical perspective on the viewer/subject relationship, and an exploration of the grotesque/sublime. In Craft’s newest paintings, handmade masks and body pieces act as a filter between the viewer and the subject asking you to look beyond the surface.
Craft earned her MFA from the New York Academy of Art in 2015 and her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2011. She was an artist-in-residence at Sarabande: the Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation from 2021-22. Craft’s work is collected internationally and has been shown in museums and galleries across the United States including The Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, The Pennsylvania State Museum, The Untitled Space NYC, and The Masur Museum of Art. In March 2022 she debuted her solo exhibition Soliloquies at Sarabande. In 2020, she was named Ambassador of the Week in Realism Today. In 2024, Craft’s work embarked toward the moon on Astrobotic’s doomed Peregrine Lunar Lander as part of the Lunar Codex. A backup will be sent later this year.
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