Inspired by minimalism and conceptual art, this work was a sort of hybrid between sculpture and installations, employing barriers, waiting lines and other objects that control the way we move through space.
Described as "eerie and vaguely sinister, conjuring a sense of claustrophobia and infinity at the same time... Kalpakjian's deceptively plausible computer-generated animation becomes an apt metaphor for the impersonal spaces of corporate architecture.
Depicting darkened, windowless hallways in mute palettes, duct systems embedded within the infrastructure of buildings, at times presented from impossible points of view, many of these works feature the "invisible eyes" and other remote-viewing sensory devices that map actual space with blankets of virtual electronic surveillance.
[16] His 2017 exhibit at Kai Matsumiya gallery in New York included a number of large scale prints as well as an installation incorporating a robotic moving head spotlight hanging from an intrusive metal truss.
[4][17][3] Michael Ashkin wrote that Craig Kalpakjian’s work "sits at the intersection of photography, sculpture, and architecture, and introduces important questions about the larger spatial constructs we inhabit.
[30] In 2017 Sternberg Press released Craig Kalpakjian - Intelligence, a catalog based on his work Black Box, 2002-2013, including a conversation with Bob Nickas and texts by Paul Wombell and Gilles Deleuze.
[41] From 2005 through 2015 he was an adjunct professor and Artist in Residence at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and from 2007 has been a Studio Instructor in the MFA program at Parsons School of Design in New York.