Eli Craven is an artist born in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He currently lives and works in Champaign, Illinois, where he teaches photography at the University of Illinois. His work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally, most recently at the Capture Photography Festival in Vancouver, in the book Unlocked published by Atopos CVC in Athens Greece, and The Age of Collage Vol. 2 published by Gestalten in Berlin Germany.

Craven’s work explores the role of images and objects within the development of identity, memory, and desire. The acts of looking and collecting are central to his process. Each project begins with the search for redeemable sources at estate sales, thrift stores, and other second hand markets. Through various methods of manipulation, the materials are charged with new possibilities directed at the senses - the familiar, the bizarre, the boring, the erotic. The reclaimed materials combined with his own personal additions become sculptural assemblages intended to provide new narratives.