Leah Grace Craig is a figurative painter based in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her BFA in Painting with an emphasis in printmaking from Savanna College of Art and Design. Craig grew up in Highlands, North Caroline, nestled in the Appalachian mountains. Growing up in the misty peaks, she spent considerable time immersed in nature, which profoundly influenced her dreamlike landscapes and organic forms. Craig is influenced by two worlds: the comfort and safety of her childhood and the survival of an abusive relationship, both mental and physical, which left scars that still remain.

Craig’s ethereal portraits primarily depict women adrift in clouds, surrounded by flowers and animals that blend into one another’s forms within her monochromatic blue palette. While these dreamlike compositions radiate softness and serenity, they simultaneously veil deeper narratives of resilience, grief, and the strength rooted in the female body. Her practice emerges from a disciplined exploration of the subconscious, where nightmare-inspired imagery becomes a means of reconciling darkness with beauty, each illuminating the other in delicate balance. Just as calm and chaos coexist in nature to create harmony, this duality becomes the heart of her work, shaping both the subject matter, with repetitive motifs like the eyeless sphinx, and the mood, where figures are often crying or decorated with the bruises she once bore, hidden in a maze of floral tattoos that cover most of her subjects.

Employing oil painting as her primary medium, Craig combines classical techniques with contemporary symbolism to invite viewers into spaces where vulnerability is expressed in accessible, gentle ways, allowing the audience to meditate on their own grief and inner darkness. These surreal, liminal worlds transform nightmares into scenes of reflection and healing, offering beauty as a counterpoint to trauma. Together, this body of work lays the conceptual and aesthetic groundwork for her forthcoming exhibitions.

Craig's series, “The Divine Now,” began in 2024 and debuted in 2025 at SCAD’s revitalized Fine Arts Showcase, and subsequently at their Out to Launch event, where she remains a spotlight artist. The work will be returning this November at the second Fine Art Showcase at SCAD Atlanta. Her work has been exhibited in galleries such as Kia Lin Art, Gallery Anderson Smith, Mason Fine Art, Concept Orca, Terminal D’Art, and now Alday Hunken Gallery in Mexico City.

In addition to her creative endeavors, Craig has served as a peer tutor and mentor in the painting studio at SCAD and has worked as a printmaking shop monitor for three years. She regularly assists printmaking faculty at SCAD and has worked as an artist assistant for master printmakers, such as Larry Thomas in California. She now works as an artist assistant for painter Niki Zarrabi in Atlanta. Frequently collaborating with interdisciplinary teams such as Delta, the Together Project, and FIFA, she designs murals, bus wrappings, and contributes to museum-quality installations.