Kenneth Craft

Ken Craft (b.1967, New Mexico) is an artist based in Dallas, TX, where he lives with his wife, Carolyn, and several pets. He retired in 2025 from the City of Garland, TX Fire Department, where he worked for 30 years. He retired as a Fire Captain and Paramedic. Throughout his years as a firefighter, he maintained a career as a working and exhibiting artist. 

Craft graduated from The University of North Texas in 1990 with a BFA in painting and a minor in English literature. He has exhibited with 500X, Gray Matters Gallery, and Ro2 Art in Dallas. In 2015, he won the Top Prize award at Artspace 111's annual juried exhibit in Fort Worth, with artist Vernon Fisher as juror. That led to a group exhibition and representation with Mark Moore Fine Art, Orange Acres Park, CA. Shortly after, he was published in New American Painting #138 covering the Western US. In 2019, Craft was awarded a 3-week Artist's Residency at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. He recently completed a 4-week Alumni Residency at MASS MoCA in June 2026. In fall 2026, Craft begins an MFA in Painting program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. 

Craft is primarily a representational painter working in oil, watercolor, and mixed media. He's interested in natural history, people's histories, and world events-big and small. Art history and science, comics, and personal narrative also influence him. He's inspired by literary fiction from authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Powers, and Percival Everett, whose research and storytelling reveal rich, complex worlds of interconnectivity across all life.