Maddie Alexander

Maddie Alexander is a trans artist, archivist, and arts worker. After graduating with a BFA from OCAD University in 2016, he went on to pursue an MFA (completed 2020) at NSCAD University where they received The Reznick Family Fund for Student Creativity. Their work has been exhibited locally and internationally. He has participated in numerous residencies, most recently Mudhouse Residency (Crete, Greece), CSAV– Artists' Research Laboratory at Fondazione Antonio Ratti (Como, Italy), and Footnote Centre (Belgrade,Serbia). In support of their artwork, they have received grants from Arts Nova Scotia, and the Canada Council for the Arts. They currently work as the Research Assistant and Public Art Manager with IOTA Studios based in Halifax, NS.

Their artistic practice focuses on lived queer and trans experiences, often through an autoethnographic approach. This is explored through a method of recording, archiving, and dissecting both sourced materials and personal experience. In this, they survey themes of desire, failure, care and dissonance. 

Influenced heavily by histories of queer media, his projects can reflect DIY print and installation practices of the 1980s and 90s. While understanding the historical importance of queer media, he honors these aesthetics as a tool to reflect on present narratives in contemporary space. 

They have always had a distinct interest in methods of translation; and explore this through meshing digital and analog technical processes. This process of translation connects to his personal experience of transness: fluctuating and creating through patchwork to make something that feels real and whole.