Tracy Krumm

Tracy Krumm is a nationally recognized American artist whose creative practice has helped shape contemporary craft for more than 35 years. Known especially for combining rigid industrial materials like metal, steel, and found objects, into abstract looped-wire pieces that feature delicate patinas developed from naturally occurring minerals and the plants cultivated in her own garden. Her work highlights the powerful contrast between machine-age strength and the intimacy of traditional weaving and interlacing techniques.

Krumm’s work has been shown internationally and in major museum exhibitions, including the American Craft Museum (now Museum of Arts and Design) in New York, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the Triennial of Textiles in Łódź, Poland, and the Cheongju Biennial in South Korea. Her art and insights have also appeared in books that survey contemporary craft and textile practice, recognizing her role in advancing how we think about fiber, form, and material boundaries.

Among her major honors, Krumm is the recipient of a Fulbright-Nehru Senior Fellowship to conduct practice-based research in India in 2027 and 2028, was awarded a McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship (2015–16), and featured in the American Craft Council’s National Craft Directory. She also serves on prominent advisory councils for craft institutions like the Textile Center in Minneapolis.

A native to Minnesota, she has taught and lectured at over 20 institutions of higher and continuing education around the country including the Kansas City Art Institute, North Carolina State University, Maine College of Art, University of WI- River Falls, Metro State (MN), University of Montana, California College of the Arts, Cranbrook Academy, The Witt Visiting Artist Program- University of Michigan, Memphis College of Art, San Jose State, UC Santa Cruz, Anderson Ranch, Haystack, Arrowmont, Appalachian Center for Craft, and Penland. Over decades of making, teaching, and curating, Krumm has bridged the gap between technical rigor and tactile curiosity, placing her work at a key intersection of American craft history and contemporary art.