A Brief Look: The Women of Artist Craig Drake

The first thing you notice about the work of artist Craig Drake is its familiarity. Drake’s work takes off where legendary designer Patrick Nagel left off with his famed ‘Nagel Girls’ that graced the pages of Playboy and Duran Duran‘s classic Rio album in the 1980s.

Nagel’s work was incredibly unique and singular, his style was a culmination of art deco and the influence of emerging modern techniques and through Drake it lives on, evolving — Drake adding Nagel’s own work into the stream of inspiration and influence.

Drake’s work is built of tight and bold shapes. Drastic forms and contrast. He updates the ‘Nagel Girls’ with his own female obsessions — the women of science fiction and fantasy. There’s a sexiness to what Drake creates, his work is portraiture as pedestal.

In his portraits there’s a glamorization of the subjects — he shows their beauty and their danger, but also their strength.