"By Design."

24x24”

Original Digital Painting with Embroidery Embellishments

(2025)

Alexander Proulx is a self-taught mixed-media artist based in Chicago, IL.

“By Design” reflects on visibility, representation, and allyship through the lens of a queer millennial man. As a teenager in the early 2000s, Proulx’s queer identity was shaped by the cultural conversations surrounding these topics, particularly in the aftermath of the AIDS crisis.

Over the past quarter century, the cultural and political conversation around allyship and visibility has become increasingly complex. In a community that lost a significant portion of its elder generation to AIDS, the queer community cried out for recognition. In response, we saw the rise of "pink capitalism"—corporations and politicians leveraging queer identities for profit, only to discard us when we no longer serve their interests or are no longer in vogue.

In a world that commodifies, politicizes, or demonizes queer identities, what does authentic visibility and representation truly look like? For Proulx, the absence of steadfast allyship or establishment has resulted in an identity that remains rooted in the self—an identity that can only be pieced together through experience, intention, and the courage to stand confidently as one's authentic self.

Using a combination of alcohol ink, photography, digital painting, and embroidery, Proulx blends diverse mediums in unconventional ways to create a self-portrait that reflects the complexities of these themes and their histories.