CRAIG GEORGE

– CRAIG GEORGE –

Diné (Navajo), 1970—

Craig George (born 1970 in Ganado on the Navajo Reservation, Arizona) is a Diné (Navajo) painter whose work uniquely bridges the cultural worlds of urban America and traditional Navajo life. Shortly after his birth, his family relocated to Los Angeles, where he was raised in the South Central neighborhood — an experience that deeply informed his artistic voice. It was during his youth in L.A. that he began drawing and tagging, and a local police officer’s encouragement helped steer him toward a more focused pursuit of art. George later formalized his training at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His paintings often fuse urban graffiti aesthetics with depictions of everyday scenes and memory, reflecting his life across two worlds — “born on the rez, raised in LA and now back on the rez,” as he has reflected.

George’s artistic practice is characterized by richly hued oil paintings that weave together references to graffiti, street culture, and Navajo landscape and tradition. His work has been featured in a range of group and curated exhibitions that emphasize contemporary Indigenous expression. Notable shows include Neo Native: Towards New Mythologies at the Maloof Foundation in Alta Loma, California (2017), and he was selected as a featured artist for the LA SKINS FEST in 2019. In 2024, George participated in New Terrains: Contemporary Native American Art at Phillips New York, a major exhibition in New York City, curated by Tony Abeyta, James Trotta-Bono and Bruce Hartman, presenting recent works that interrogate identity, place, and cultural memory through a contemporary Native lens.

Craig George’s works are held in several notable museum collections and institutional holdings. His paintings reside in the permanent collections of the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, as well as at the University of Oklahoma, evidencing recognition from major cultural institutions engaged with Indigenous art. Over the years, he has also shown in numerous group exhibitions across museums and galleries, contributing to the visibility of contemporary Native American art both within and beyond the Southwestern United States.