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Craig Kraft Interview on

Cre8tives Talk

by Project Create

March 2023

"Join us for another episode of CRE8TIVES TALK as we interview Craig Kraft, an American Sculptor, and owner of Kraft Studios located in Anacostia."

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Craig Kraft Interview with MONDO Neon Podcast

April 2019

"Craig Kraft knows too well the feeling of rendering sculptures incorporating details in neon, he’s been at it since 1983. Whether it’s being a faculty member of the Smithsonian Institution Studio Arts Program, regularly teaching neon to newcomers, or being commissioned to create monumental rolled aluminum light sculptures, the ongoing impact of his work is felt throughout the nation. Which is why, as Craig tells Max, is interested in where it all that began, from studying early cave drawings and markings to creating his Ground Zero Series - inspired by years of graffiti on the walls of the Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale, Mississippi."

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Full Service Radio- NEON ARTIST CRAIG KRAFT ON DIRECT MESSAGE

January 2018

Craig Kraft is an neon artist whose studio is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of SE Washington, DC. A longtime DC resident and working artist, this episode of Direct Message dives into the work and world of Craig Kraft (who also made the Full Service Radio ON ON ON neon sign!).

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Artist Bringing Music to Life at Museum of African American History

Fall 2016

From NBC News 4 Washington

"Barbara Harrison tells the story of local artist Craig Kraft, who's helping bring music to life inside National Museum of African American History and Culture. "

(Published Friday, Feb 26, 2016 | Credit: Barbara Harrison)

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Neon sculpture exhibit at Georgetown gallery shows possibilities of light

Fall 2018

From The DC Line

"You may have seen Kraft’s work without realizing it. His studio in Anacostia is responsible for the neon sculpture outside the Shaw (Watha T. Daniel) Neighborhood Library, along with an array of other commissioned light sculptures brightening public spots in Silver Spring, Rockville and Arlington. At the Susan Calloway gallery in Georgetown, the Drawn by Light exhibit acquaints viewers with Kraft’s smaller, more personal projects, offering a concise yet eclectic selection of works from his 35-year career."

-Athena Naylor, The DC Line

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The Universal Human Urge To Mark

Fall 2018

From East City Art

Author: Craig Kraft

Editor: Claudia Rousseau, Ph. D. Art History and  Jayne Wise, former editor for National Geographic

Publicized: Phil Hutinet, East City Art

In the galleries by Mark Jenkins

Fall 2018 

From Washington Post

 

"It’s unlikely that any practitioner has dragged neon further from Times Square than Craig Kraft. His “The Urge to Mark,” now at Montgomery College’s King Street Gallery, illuminates cave paintings that date to some 40,000 years before neon’s early-20th-century commercialization."

-Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

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Timeless Travels

Spring 2017

 

Contemporary artist Craig Kraft wanted to see first-hand the rock art found at Sulawesi in Indonesia. Here he recounts his adventures to reach the oldest cave paintings in the world and how they affected his own work

Arlington Arts Center’s Neon Sculpture Moving to Anacostia

December 01, 2009

From ARLnow

 

"The untitled neon and rolled aluminum piece by sculptor Craig Kraft has made its home in Arlington since 2005, when it wascommissioned by then-curator of The Phillips Collection Stephen Phillips.The piece is moving across the river to the Anacostia Arts Center. Kraft’s studio is located in Anacostia." 

-Mariah Joyce

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Craig Kraft: Lightweb

February 01, 2016

From Sculpture Magazine

 

"Commissioned by Montgomery County and the SIlver Spring Development Corporation, Washington, DC, artist Craig Kraft recently completed an illuminated sculpture for the new Silver Plaza in downtown Silver Spring. Curved strples of blue, green, and red neon light are beamed around the tower, giving a sense of fluid three-dimensionality."

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Vivace at Watha T. Daniel Library in Shaw

February 26, 2016

From The InTowner

 

The new 22,000 square-foot, three-story Watha T. Daniel Branch Library in the 1600 block of 7th Street NW, across from the Shaw Metro station has been designed...On the plaza outside, prominent DC sculptor Craig Kraft's large work, titled Vivace, will engage passersby and those coming to the library. "Like jazz," Kraft explains, his creation "embodies freedom and inspiration as well as a carefully crafted composition of form and color."

-P.L. Wolff

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Women, Conflict, Neon Provoke in Trio of Shows

July 28, 2006

From The Washington Post

Craig Kraft and Camilo Sanin

 

"The title "Unintentional Drawings" won't seem that odd to gallerygoers with some grouding in dadism and surrealism. Artists shaped by those movements have attempted to escape their own mind-sets by creating work through dreams or random choices..."

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Craig Kraft: A Bringer of Light

July 12, 2014

"Trying to describe the multitude of stimuli in Kraft’s would require an expounding, the likes of which would make my mind spasm. This all exists on the first floor of the fire station, where the fire engines would reside. It’s a cavernous wonderland of apparatuses, oddities, books, engaging art and, yes, the original brass fire pole too." - Bill Bridges

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Craig Kraft Opens New Studio in Anacostia

September 22, 2014

"The overall experience convinced Kraft to take the plunge and move east of the river and re-root himself in historic Anacostia. “I love the energy of the area,” Kraft says, “it's a neighborhood in transition and there is an eager anticipation for arts development in Anacostia.” Kraft also sees Anacostia as a neighborhood endowed with a well-established artist community and a group of well-connected neighbors."

- Phil Hutinet

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Another Art Space Coming to Anacostia

October 01, 2013

"The District's up-and-coming arts strip just gained one more member. Today, sculptor Craig Kraft closed on a property at 1239 Good Hope Road SE in Anacostia, with plans to convert the vacant space into a studio, gallery, and residence.Kraft, who's known for his neon light sculptures, has been based out of the iconic Engine House No. 7 at 931 R St. NW since he bought it in 1992. He put 10 years of work into the space, but sold it last month for $2.3 million because the neighborhood had become too established." - Aaron Wiener

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