Artist Statement

Soliloquies is a recently completed series of oil paintings rejecting the tradition of the idealized female nude that persists in contemporary figurative painting today. Created from a single model, these works led me to my own visual language: an obsession with the details of form and an exaggerated color palette that accentuates the textures and transparency of skin.

The most interesting parts of these paintings are the moments where flesh meets flesh and you see all the folds and creases and imperfections. These are the moments where the line between the sublime and the grotesque becomes blurry. In this way, I am rejecting the hyperfeminisation of the body that requires the fleshy aspects of the nude to be glossed over and the poses to remain inactive.

My most recent paintings mark the beginning of a new series exploring the power of anonymity in today’s surveilled reality. Geometric masks and body pieces act as a filter, making the viewer slow down their gaze and look deeper for information. This keeps the nude figures from becoming merely objects in a composition. Each mask is handmade out of foam board and spray paint and arranged on the model. The paintings are built up in layers beginning with a traditional underpainting and finished with glazes and scumbling, creating luminous surfaces full of depth and texture. Through these works I am building a fictional world in which women’s bodies are not subjugated the way they have been throughout art history.

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Artist Biography

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.

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. Her 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. Recently, Craft’s work featured in New Visionary Magazine and she was named Ambassador of the Week in Realism Today. In 2023, Craft’s work will head to the moon on Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander as part of the Lunar Codex’s Peregrine Collection.

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Education 

2015
New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
MFA, Painting

2011 
Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
BFA, Painting

2008 
Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA
Fine Arts Coursework

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Awards and Honors

2022 
Artist in Residence at Sarabande: the Lee Alexander McQueen Foundation, London, England

2021 
3rd Place, Intergalactic Open II, Shockboxx Gallery, Hermosa Beach, CA

2019 
Honorable Mention, Jerry’s Artarama Self Portrait Contest 

2017 
Blick InLiquid Microgrant, Philadelphia, PA

2016 
3rd Place, Philadelphia Sketch Club Works on Paper Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA

2015
Merit Scholarship, New York Academy of Art, New York, NUY

2014 
Hudson Valley Plein Air Residency

2013 
Art of the State finalist, State Museum of PA, Harrisburg, PA

2011 
Fred Lazarus, Merit, and Transfer scholarships, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

2008  
Best in Show and Judge’s Pick, Montgomery County Community College, Blue Bell, PA 

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Selected Collections 

Public
The Peregrine Collection, The Lunar Codex, Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander, The Moon 

Private 
Witz Collection, Switzerland 
Stroie Collection, Hartford, CT 
Manocherian Collection, New York, NY
Fairs Collection, New York, NY 
Hessel Collection, Philadelphia, PA 
Meyers Collection of Women Artists, Baltimore, MD 
Hastie Collection, United Kingdom

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Selected Press and Publications

2023
New Visionary Magazine, Issue 5, curated  by Sasha-Loriene, digital and print

2022
Optimism Defines Sarabande’s 2022 Group Summer Show, Joshua Graham, Show Studio, online

2020
Ambassador of the Week, Realism Today, online

2019
Painting the Figure Now, PoetsArtists, Issue #95, online and print

2018
Meet Shaina Craft, VoyageChicago, online

2013
Global Conscious, Local Artists, Philip Mastrippolito, Title Magazine, online

‍Shaina Craft’s Experiments in Flesh, Juxtapoz Magazine, online

‍Visually Unsettling Portraits by Shaina Craft, Danny Olda, Hi Fructose Magazine, online

Selected Exhibitions

Solo 

2022 

Soliloquies, Sarabande Foundation, London, UK 

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Group 

2023

New Now VI, InLiquid Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2022 

Soon This Will Be Over, Sarabande Foundation, London, UK  

Sarabande X Dom Perignon Artist Showcase, Sarabande High Road, London, UK 

Sarabande X Soho Home, Soho Home Studio, London, UK 

2021 

58th Annual Juried Competition, Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA
Dr. Kelli Morgan, Curator

Intergalactic Open II, Shockboxx Gallery, Los Angeles, CA  

Her Weight in Gold, Visionary Art Collective, online 

2020

Art4Equality Benefit Group Show and Auction, Untitled Space, New York, NY

2019 

Body Beautiful, Untitled Space, New York, NY 

Dear Earth…, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL  

The Vault, 33 Contemporary, Artsy 

Painting the Figure Now, Zhou B Art Center and PoetsArtists, Artsy 

5x5 Project, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO 

2018

Holiday Miniatures Show, Abend Gallery, Denver, CO

Winged Woman: The Art of Arlene Love and Contemporary Parallels, The Painted Bride, Philadelphia, PA InLiquid, Curator

The New Nude, Zhou B Art Center and PoetsArtists, Artsy 

Winter Juried Exhibition, 3rd Street Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 

2017 

National Juried Art Exhibition, Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI
Alyssa Monks, Curator

Small Works, Black Moth Gallery, Ardmore, PA 

Single Fare 4, Highline Stages, New York, NY 

Informally Acquainted, Black Moth Gallery, Ardmore, PA 

Tone of Intention, Lacey and Phillips Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
InLiquid, Curator

Mono//Chrome, Mill Arts Collective, Bristol, PA

2016 

Alfred Distefano Memorial Works on Paper Exhibition, Philadelphia Sketch Club,Philadelphia, PA 

Faculty/Invited Alumni Show, Montgomery County Community College, Bluebell, PA 

2015 

MFA Thesis Exhibition, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY 

Affordable Art Fair NYC, Saatchi Art, NYC 

Tribeca Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York, NY