Joseph Alexander

Joseph Alexander is a portrait artist working in oils in Minnesota’s Driftless region. He is the founder of Driftless Art Academy in Rochester, where he teaches representational realism in oil painting, guiding students to artistic mastery. Joseph is the recipient of a 2022 SEMAC Emerging Artist Grant for his portrait series The Grand Drag Legacy of Southeastern Minnesota and a 2023 MSAB Support for Individual Artists grant for his upcoming portrait series Minnesota Queer Elders: A Cultural Exploration in Portraiture. He is a third-generation oil painter. Joseph’s philosophy as an artist is that culture expresses itself through art, and that the art legacy we create now will speak to the future about who we are. He believes that anyone with the interest to pursue art can become an outstanding artist with proper training and experience. Joseph lives in Rochester, MN with his husband John Alexander and their German Shepherd, Eljay.