Senior Fellow

Russell Craig is a painter and Philadelphia native whose work combines portraiture with deeply social and political themes. He is a self-taught artist, who graduated from Bard, and who survived over a decade of incarceration after growing up in the foster care system.

His work has been displayed in shows such as Art in the Era of Mass Incarceration (2014), Truth to Power at the Democratic National Convention (2015), State Goods (2017), Blood, Sweat, and Tears (2018), The OG Experience with HBO (2019), Rendering Justice at the Philadelphia African American Museum (2020), MoMA PS1 Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration (2021), and Sotheby’s (2023). Craig has garnered coverage in outlets including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Artsy, The Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Times, Artforum, Forbes, The New Yorker, and featured in the Emmy award winning MTV’s Art & Krimes by Krimes.

Craig is the co-founder of the Right of Return Fellowship, funded by Open Philanthropy, in 2017. Craig is a board member of the Center for Art and Advocacy. He is also the recipient of an Art For Justice grant in 2018 and the 2024 Creative Capital grant. Craig has created public installations in Philadelphia as part of the Mural Arts Program.

Russell is a Senior Fellow at Silver Art