Sacha Craddock


Sacha Craddock is an independent art critic, writer & curator based in London. She studied painting at Central Saint Martins followed by a post-graduate painting degree at Chelsea School of Art before going on to write criticism for The Guardian and The Times. She has been Chair of the Board of New Contemporaries and selection process since 1996.
Craddock co-founded Artschool Palestine and is co-founder and member of Faculty at British School at Rome, Trustee of the Shelagh Cluett Trust, Trustee of the Art House Foundation and Executive Committee Member of the International Association of Art Critics AICA.
Craddock has judged many art prizes, such as the Turner Prize in 1999 and the John Moores Painting Prize in 2008.
She is currently working on a publication about the changing attitudes to contemporary art in Britain, commissioned by Reaktion Books.

Life and career

Born in New Zealand, Craddock relocated to Oxford as a child before moving to London in 1973, there she went on to help formulate one of the city's most well-known squats on Tolmers Square in Euston.
Craddock continues to live communally along with some of the original Tolmer's residents. After completing a degree in fine art painting at Central St Martins, and a post-graduate painting degree at Chelsea School of Art, Craddock began writing art criticism for The Guardian newspaper in 1988, her first review appearing in the 26 May issue of the paper. Later Craddock was also a regular art columnist for The Times. In this capacity, Craddock reviewed exhibitions of many up and coming Young British Artists, and was the only journalist to review the pre-YBA exhibition: Freeze, which featured early work by artists such as Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Mat Collishaw.
In 1996 Craddock became chair of Bloomberg New Contemporaries, a role which she continues to hold.
In 2005 Craddock co-founded ArtSchool Palestine with Charles Asprey, and Samar Martha, in order to promote and support Palestinian artists and aid their participation in international contemporary art exhibitions and biennales. ASP has held many events and exhibitions, including "As If By Magic", to which the British artist Damien Hirst lent his support.
Craddock has one daughter, Augusta Riddy.

Selected bibliography