Jordan Ann Craig — From Our Store

Jordan Ann Craig, an artist from the Northern Cheyenne, creates paintings, prints and textile works, which are an exploration of existence, time and space, woven from cultural memory and epiphany. In 2018, Craig exhibited works as part of October Gallery’s group show, Portal II. This was followed by her successful solo exhibition, entitled Your Wildest Dreams, which presented a newly completed series of reimaged hard-edge paintings based on Cheyenne cultural design and autobiographical observation.

Craig’s process is meticulous and meditative, often obsessive in mark and repetition. She draws inspiration from Indigenous textiles, beadwork, pottery and landscapes. Her work shares personal stories through abstraction, colour and rhythm. She engages past, present and future to depict Indigenous design through a contemporary lens. Craig creates new narratives within her work while celebrating her ancestors and Indigenous land. Her abstract paintings and prints expands the definition of Native American art, and how culture is transmitted.

The artist explains: “My work keeps me up at night and gets me out of bed in the morning. I've forgotten how to sleep. I tell stories about my childhood, family, trauma, healing and the appealing mundane. Working in series, I explore subjects like the feeling of forgetting how to sleep, my relationships with my sisters, and the translation of language and dreams. The dots and shapes are my words; the stories are in their rhythm.”

Craig earned her BFA from Dartmouth College studying Studio Art and Psychology. She has participated in numerous artist residency programmes and exhibitions nationally and internationally. Craig’s first residence was in 2018 at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2019 she was the recipient of the notable Roswell Artist-in-Residence fellowship and more recently has participated in residencies including Ucross Foundation in Clearmont, Wyoming (2020); Anderson Ranch t in Snowmass Village, Colorado (2022) and Acequia Madre House in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2023). Craig is Creative Director and Cofounder of Shy Natives, an ethically made apparel line designed by Native American women. As of 2022, Craig sits on the Hood Museum of Art Board of Advisors and is also newly appointed Commissioner of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board (IACB).