Deborah Kraft (b. 1988, Davenport, Iowa) is an artist living and working in Chicago, Illinois. Her solo exhibitions include Taxonomies of Pretend at the Box Office at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, Michigan; Every Beautiful Thing at the Museum of Museums, Seattle; and Deborah Kraft: Monuments to Earthly Wonders at Relativity Textiles, Chicago. Upcoming solo exhibitions include projects at NEIU Fine Arts Center Gallery, Chicago, and Quad Cities International Airport, Moline, Illinois.

Kraft has participated in exhibitions at Hyde Park Art Center, Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts, Purple Window Gallery, Giant Robot, and the Outsider Art Fair. She was a Summer Artist-in-Residence at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency in 2024 and has participated in the Center Program at Hyde Park Art Center. Her work has been featured in Antiques and The Arts Weekly, Create! Magazine, The Jealous Curator, and Art Zealous, and is held in the public collection of Lincoln Land Community College.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2027
TBD, NEIU Fine Arts Center Gallery, Chicago, IL — upcoming
TBD, Quad Cities International Airport, Moline, IL — upcoming

2024
Taxonomies of Pretend, Box Office at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI

2023
Every Beautiful Thing, Museum of Museums, Seattle, WA

2022
Deborah Kraft: Monuments to Earthly Wonders, Relativity Textiles, Chicago, IL

Selected Group Exhibitions
2027
Lightening the Weight, 3-person exhibition, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL — upcoming

2025
Mutuality: Center Program Biennial, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Mindlarking, Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts, Gary, IN
Building the World You Want, Purple Window Gallery, Chicago, IL

2024
Continuous Span, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL

2023
The Neko Show, Giant Robot, Los Angeles, CA
IAAF Art for Access, RAYGUN, Des Moines, IA
The Other Art Fair, Chicago, IL
Community Through Collage, Everybody’s Coffee Gallery, Chicago, IL

2022
Midnight Things, The Martin, Chicago, IL
Tiny Works, Fulton Street Collective, Chicago, IL
Deep Forest, Giant Robot, Los Angeles, CA
Forty Five, Houska Gallery, St. Louis, MO
October: Deborah Kraft, Charlene Moy, Corkie Neuhaus, Xiao Space, Evanston, IL

2018
Onward, Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY

Residencies / Programs
2025
Center Program, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL

2024
Summer Artist-in-Residence, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI
The Crit Lab Spring Fellowship, New York, NY

2023
Bridge Program, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Materials Scholarship, Twin Cities Collage Collective

Awards/Features
2025
2025 Artists to Watch, Comfort Station, Chicago, IL

2024
Soho House Dreamers in Residency, Chicago, IL finalist
Featured Artist: Cultivate Grand Rapids, Juror Nicki Ni, Grand Rapids, MI

2023
2023 Artists to Watch, Comfort Station, Chicago, IL
Materials Scholarship, Twin Cities Collage Collective


Guest Lectures
2024
Columbia College “Photo 362: Image Strategies” Professor Jonathan Michael Castillo, Chicago, IL (Class Lecture)


Publications
Burnett, ZG, ‘Q&A: Deborah Kraft’ Antiques and The Arts Weekly, July 2023
Create! Magazine, Issue no. 36, June 2023
Teske, Gretchen. "Design by Bettendorf Natives Chosen to Promote Abortion Access in Iowa." Quad-City Times, May 2023
’Art Delivery : 09.17.22’ The Jealous Curator (Online), September 2022
Zimmerman-Black, Stephanie. ‘This Year’s Outsider Art Fair Feat. Record Attendance and Groundbreaking Feminism’ Art Zealous , January 2018

Public Collections
Lincoln Land Community College, Springfield, IL
Acquired through the Illinois Art-in-Architecture Program