Artist Bio:
A BFA graduate of Fiber Art at the Kansas City Art Institute (08) Jacob returned home to New Orleans with a new passion for textile, wearable, and green art. Jacob’s art celebrates the rebirth of materials down to the molecule and the joy in life.
Missing the sense of community and collaboration that he experienced in school, he decided to purchase a large Katrina ravaged building in New Orleans’ Bywater and, with a lot of hard work and generous help, turned it into what became the Aquarium Gallery and Studios.
In 2016 the building was almost entirely destroyed by a large fire. The very next day, Jacob started rebuilding with help from his community. During the rebuilding process, finding himself without a home or studio, Jacob started the performance group The Flaming Flagettes, opening a new arena for artistic instincts and costume-making.
With the Aquarium Gallery and Studios reopened with 11 studios, a gallery and artist residency, Jacob Reptile continues to nurture the skills in collaboration and community-building that he discovered in himself due to necessity, while also renewing focus on fiber art inspired by nature that brings much needed joy but highlights different environmental problems.
Artist CV:
EDUCATION
2008 Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, BFA in Fiber Art
2004 New Orleans Center for Creative Art, New Orleans, LA, Visual Arts
FEATURED EXHIBITIONS
2026 “Crypto-Zoology”, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, Al
2025 Bayou Installation, JAMNOLA, New Orleans La
2024 SUPERNOVA, Light art Festival at Lafitte Greenway New Orleans, La
2024 Tales Of The Cocktail, Fiber installation and Mural, J.W. Marriott, New Orleans La
2024 Mural Assistant to Jasmine Zelaya, Meow Wolf, Houston, TX
2024 "LOUISIANA WILDLIFE: WHERE Y’AT?,” Ogden Museum, New Orleans, La
2023 “STAY CLEAR OF DITCHES,” Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, La (Solo)
2022 “Forever Green”, Aquarium Gallery, New Orleans, La (Solo)
2021-22 "Trickle Down”, 5Press Gallery at N.O.C.C.A., New Orleans, La (Solo)
2021 Mural Assistant to Jasmine Zelaya, Live Nation Worldwide, Inc & OMA NY for 713 Music Hall VIP Room at The Post, Houston, TX
RESIDENCIES
2025 Joan Mitchell Spring Residency, New Orleans, La
2024 Artist and Sense of Place Residency, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans, LA
2023 Contemporary Art Center, New Orleans, La
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS
Angela King
Gal Holiday
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024 Lafitte Greenway Partnership
CLIENT LIST
JAMNOLA
J.W. Marriott
MEOWWOLF Houston
Live Nation Worldwide, Inc
GROUP EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
2024 “Nite-Lite,” Aquarium Gallery, New Orleans, La
2024 “Mutant Menagerie", LeMieux Gallery, New Orleans, La
2023 “All That Was Bright,” The Art Gallery (TAG) University of West Florida, Pensacola, Fl
2023 “Roller Soul," disco horror play, actor and props, Cafe Istanbul, New Orleans, La
2022 “Is This Too Much?”, LeMieux Gallery, New Orleans, La.
2022 “Spring Swings,” Longue Vue Home and Garden, New Orleans, La
2022 "As We Heal,” Second Story Gallery, New Orleans, La
2021 “Trembling Prairie,” Aquarium Gallery, New Orleans, La
2021 "Since You’ve Been Gone", Aquarium Gallery, New Orleans, La
2021 "The Waiting Room”, Wading Room Gallery, New Orleans, La
2020 "Nucleotide Tsunami”, Good Children Gallery, New Orleans La
2019 “Trickle Down Ecology”, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, La (Solo)
2019 "Queer as F^ck", Flaming Flagettes performance, One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans La
2019 “Team Aqua”, group show, The Aquarium Gallery, New Orleans, La
2018 “Neither Here Nor There”, Box13 Window Box Collaboration, Houston,Tx
2018 “The Last!”, Aqua Mob water ballet, New Orleans, La
2017 "Two Legs Bad,” Aqua Mob water ballet, New Orleans, La
2017 Peaches, The Music Box Village, Flaming Flagettes performance, New Orleans La
2016 “Recycle, Reduce, Reuse”, Cultural Exchange Pavilion, Jazz and Heritage Festival, New Orleans
2016-17 Old 77 Hotel and Chandlery, New Orleans, La
2016 “Mardi Gras After the Apocalypse”, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, La
2011-16 Monthly Group shows at Aquarium Gallery and Studio, New Orleans, La