Santiago Zarzosa

Santiago Zarzosa is a European Artist born & educated in Spain.  He currently works in DFW area after spending over 20 years in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.  He is a versatile visual artist whose practice spans oil painting, mixed media, dry-point etching, printmaking, and charcoal drawing. His artistic exploration extends to photography, watercolor, and various print techniques, including Japanese Ukiyo-e and linoleum-based linocuts. Santiago uses these mediums to express his personal perspective on the world, drawing from his life experiences and the diverse influences he encounters. His work, both representational and abstract, continues to inspire and resonate with other artists and audiences alike.

Originally on a path to law school, Santiago made a pivotal shift halfway through his studies, transferring to a private school in Madrid to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising. Though his formal training took a detour, his passion for art remained steadfast. Despite this change, Santiago was drawn to the arts and, while in college, sought out advanced drawing classes at the Atelier of master artist Alsadi in Madrid. There, he honed his skills in classical 3D forms and anatomical study, which continue to inform his work today.

Santiago’s love for art blossomed at a young age. When his family moved from northern to southern Spain, his father encouraged him to visit galleries and museums regularly—a practice that has remained with him throughout his life. This early exposure sparked a lifelong fascination with art, which continues to guide his creative journey.

During his college years in Madrid, Santiago traveled to the United States, where he met the love of his life. After they married, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and deepened his art education at The Atelier. Santiago also frequently visited New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and was immersed visiting many art fairs and Art Galleries.  He also participated in many , live drawing sessions at The Art Students League for many years, continuing his study of classical techniques.

Santiago soon became an active part of the vibrant art scene in the Twin Cities, holding his first solo exhibition and participating in numerous group and solo shows in both Minnesota and New York, including a group show in Soho, Manhattan. His career has also taken him internationally, with artist residencies in Iceland, Japan and Thailand.

Santiago Zarzosa has sold many paintings in his career that have gone to many collectors via his shows or private commissioned projects.  He has work owned by Collectors like The JoAnn & Gary Fink Foundation, Resolutions Inc. & Garrity Group.

From Europe to the U.S. to the far reaches of Southeast Asia, Santiago Zarzosa moves through the world like a collector of atmospheres—soaking in the pulse of each city’s art scene, letting it seep into the folds of his practice. His path weaves through the sprawling halls of Art Basel Miami, the charged corridors of the Armory Show in New York, the conceptual edge of ARCO Madrid, the layered narratives of the Bangkok Biennale, and the diverse rhythms of the Dallas Art Fair. But it doesn’t end there—his annual returns to the gallery grids of Chelsea, the cinematic sprawl of Los Angeles, the quiet density of Tokyo, the layered elegance of Paris, Amsterdam’s experimental edge, Munich’s precision, Bangkok’s wild pulse—these are rituals of artistic attunement. Zarzosa travels not as a tourist, but as a witness—tuning in, absorbing, conversing with the work of others to sharpen, unsettle, and continually reconfigure his own.

Most recently, Santiago relocated to Dallas, Texas, where he is actively adapting to a new environment—both in life and in the studio. This transition has become an extension of his practice itself: a process of observation, experimentation, and response. In Dallas, he continues to evolve his large-scale mixed media abstractions, drawing on the city’s shifting textures, light, and cultural rhythm. Just as he navigates the complexities of a new place, his work reflects a similar adaptability—layering materials, forms, and gestures that mirror the experience of building a new life while staying rooted in artistic intention. Alongside his studio explorations, he also fulfills commissioned projects, bringing this flexible, responsive approach into dialogue with diverse spaces and audiences.

Santiago Zarzosa had a great solo show at MATDOT Art Center in Bangkok where he featured his two new abstract series called: Matter Life & Geometrical Explorations where he explored the big size canvases in mix media and oils and the other series made on smaller paper format with ink and watercolor.  Those series show the growth of the artist in his transition from representational to abstract in the last few years of his long artist career.