Called "An emblem of the way art can break out of the gilded gallery" by the New Republic, she has drawn in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Dhabi's migrant labor camps, and with rebels in Syria.
Crabapple is a columnist for VICE, and has written for publications including The New York Times, Paris Review, and Vanity Fair. Her illustrated memoir, Drawing Blood, will be published by Harper Collins in 2015.

Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.