Deborah Kraft (b. 1988, Davenport, IA) is a Chicago-based artist working with innovative micro-collage techniques using primarily found paper. Composed within low relief grid forms containing dozens or hundreds of miniaturized forms, her objects hint but never reveal themselves as specimen, contraption, trophy, or ceremonial symbol. Her practice is process-intense and durational, responding to histories of craft, devotional handwork, sculpture, and photography.

Kraft’s inspiration comes from observing collected objects on both an institutional and personal level. Her work responds to traditional methods of encyclopedic recording but dispenses with hierarchical structures, reimagining objecthood through hybridization and creating forms without function beyond their inclusion within a collection. 

Solo Exhibitions
2024 Taxonomies of Pretend, Box Office Gallery at Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI
2023 Every Beautiful Thing, Supperfield Museum of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA
2022 Deborah Kraft: Monuments to Earthly Wonders, Relativity Textiles, Chicago, IL

Group Exhibitions
2025
Mindlarking, Marshall J. Gardner Center for the Arts, Gary, IN (upcoming)
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
Community Through Collage, Everybody’s Coffee Gallery, Chicago, IL
The Other Art Fair, Chicago Collage Community, 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, IL
October: Deborah Kraft, Charlene Moy, Corkie Neuhaus, Xiao Space, Evanston, IL

2018 Onward, Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY

Residencies
2024 Summer Artist-In-Residence, Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI

Awards/Features
2024
Soho House Dreamers in Residency, Chicago, IL finalist
The Crit Lab Fellowship, New York, NY
Featured Artist: Cultivate Grand Rapids, Juror Nicki Ni, Grand Rapids, MI

2023
2023 Artists to Watch, Comfort Station, Chicago IL
Bridge Program Fellow, Hyde Park Art Center, 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