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Jacob Alexander Figueroa

Jacob Alexander Figueroa
Zander by Norell.jpg
Zander onstage at the Summerset Music & Camping Festival, in 2012
Born (1986-08-01) August 1, 1986 (age 31)
Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Known for Performance Art, Visual arts, Body Art, Mixed media, Multimedia
Notable work Translucent Threads (2009)
Karnak Gallery & Studio (2010)
"All Over the Walls" (2011)
X Fashion Series (2011)
The Band Famous (2013 - Present)
Movement Conceptual art, Expressionism, Surrealism
Website phonixintl.com

Jacob Alexander Figueroa, also known as Zander (born August 1, 1986), is a predominantly Minneapolis-based body painter of Minnesota.

Primarily a self-taught artist born in St. Paul, MN on August 1, 1986, he was moved around a lot with his siblings, mother, and step-dad from Argentina, California, Kauii, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, eventually settling and graduating from Armstrong High School in Plymouth, MN in 2005. To cope with his own battles from his youth and family hardships, he immersed himself, applying ambitions in many arenas ranging from violin, which he studied at Mac Phail School of Music while in high school, as well as studying graphic design at Hennepin Technical College. When he was sixteen years old, he enlisted in Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force Auxiliary, the military branch dedicated to search and rescue, and served the United States of America for four years before returning to his love of the arts.

Jacob Alexander became known for gathering several artists together for his Shadows and Sounds exhibitions. Often the exhibitions served as benefits for larger causes, such as for Cystic Fibrosis when a friend of his was in need of a lung transplant. After various collaborations, Jacob Alexander acquired a small team of fellow artists in the realm of painting, photography, mixed media, and otherwise, before stepping up to perhaps his most ambitious goal of opening an open platform art gallery on First Ave in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. He signed the lease for what would become the first home for his company Karnak Gallery & Studio LLC when he was only 23 years old. The gallery struggled with several figures seeking to control the development of the space. It was open and running for a few months in the Spring of 2010 and held several art openings, and multimedia performances, even bringing in acts such as IDM ("Intelligent Dance Music") artists like Solvent, with Ghostly International Records. City Pages writer Andrew Flanagan described Karnak Gallery as a "forward-thinking-and-still-fun space".

The story of Karnak Gallery & Studio LLC was partially captured and can be witnessed to a good degree in Blue Bride Media Group's documentary, "All Over The Walls", which premiered as a "Work In Progress" screening at the Minneapolis St. Paul Film Festival in 2011. The documentary was also screened at the Minneapolis Underground Film Festival on December 4, 2011. It later won several awards including Highway 61 Film Festival "Best Featured Documentary".

His multimedia abstract creations - with nods to Expressionism and Surrealism - spanning years before bringing the paint brush to the human body, he received international acclaim by NY Arts Magazine in 2009/2010 for his mixed media artworks exhibited with "Translucent Threads" at Broadway Gallery. His works are often described as vibrant, intricately placed colors incorporated into exuberant designs with meticulous detail. Many of his most notable artworks portray a fusion of futuristic landscapes and transformative ethereal dream worlds, such as Path of Passion (2009). The Key to Life is Love was one work exemplifying a more luminous, ambient and esoteric feel within Alexander's work. NYArts has published that some of his mixed media works channel his fellow post-abstract expressionist, Ingrid Calame.


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