Design, Furniture Making, & Craft Education

Alexis’ design practice and teaching philosophy are rooted in notions of liberation, reciprocity, and care.

Her time designing furniture for Nakashima Woodworkers was grounded in a slow, mindful approach to making. There, her work focused on celebrating and honoring the material at hand.

Now she applies that same understanding and focus to the healing and reverence of the body. She is interested in meeting the needs of the body beyond ergonomics (the scientific study of people’s efficiency in their working environment) while being guided by what the material has to offer.

This work is grounded in a body-centered activism informed by Black / Latine feminisms. Whereas ergonomic chairs are designed to enhance the body’s capacity to labor, she believes a chair that labors for the body becomes an agent for liberation.

Most recently, Alexis has been named a 2023 Craft Research Fund Artist Fellowship Grant Recipient with the Center for Craft. Her work has also received support from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.

Notable credits include design and project management for interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer Alisha B Wormsley; furniture design and art direction for George Nakashima Woodworkers; and both the generation and instruction of design/fabrication classes for women and gender nonconforming populations at POST Detroit, Protohaven, Workshop PGH, and Prototype PGH.