A native of the San Francisco Bay area and a graduate of UCLA, Cindy Craig’s work explores the human experience, inviting viewers to confront the silent struggles that unfold behind closed doors and within the folds of societal expectations. Through her multidisciplinary approach employing watercolor, acrylic, collage, and photography, Craig unveils the plight of women as distraught housewives, confined within decorative prisons of objectification and isolation. She weaves narratives of infidelity, burnout, and loneliness, infusing her work with inflections of gallows humor that both disturb and captivate. Yet, under the surface of apparent distress, Craig surprises her audience with unexpected, playful combinations of materials, delivering a searing feminist message beneath the pretty, sometimes silly exterior. Her art becomes a nuanced exploration of the difference between the self presented to the world and the self carefully shielded behind closed doors. Craig has exhibited nationally at prestigious museums and galleries in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Notable exhibitions include "I WANT Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art" at the Hudson River Museum, "Greetings From the American Dream" at the Riverside Art Museum, "Liquid Los Angeles: Currents of Contemporary Watercolor" at the Pasadena Museum of Art, and the "National Biennial Watercolor Invitational" at the Parkland Art Gallery in Chicago. Craig's work has been featured in prominent publications such as New American Paintings, The New York Sun, Harper's, ArtWeek, American Art Collector, and Art on Paper. In 2019, her art was featured on KNBC news, spotlighting the emotional challenges faced by women during the Covid-19 pandemic. Craig currently resides in Los Angeles.

I've always been interested in what goes on inside the home behind closed doors. As a child, I watched as my Mom's cheerful public persona quickly dissolved into depression and rage. Shaped by societal pressures and expectations of the 1950's, my Mom was seduced into the "American Dream" only to discover that it wasn't for her. The fantasy of domestic bliss came to a crashing end when my parents divorced and I was signed up to clean houses at age eleven, to bring home extra money. My relationship to domesticity has been very complex and it is the main focus of my current body of work. My most recent series, "Women as Home Decor", is about women who have not had their voices heard. I've painted female figures as home decorations; wearing lampshades on their heads to hide their identity and signify their value as objects rather than human beings. The series “Fantasy Wives/Reality Lives,” explores my parents divorce from both the male and female perspectives. Cliched images of women as sex objects are juxtaposed with overwhelmed housewives confined within decorative prisons of silent desperation and domestic chores. My most personal work, the “Invisible Wallpaper” series, expresses my own feelings as a child growing up in a home where I felt invisible. And in “Milk, Eggs & Tranquilizers,” I created a series of collages that capture the anxiety and personal struggles that women experienced during the COVID19 pandemic. These series of works have given me the opportunity to examine my family history, question what it means to be a woman and most importantly, to heal.

Exhibitions:

Forget Me Knot

Things Nobody Knows But Me