I met Alexis Riverin as we were both working in bars. Although he was good at cocktail making, it seemed to me as though he was never fully himself behind the counter. And that’s until he understood his real passion was to paint. He had been making art for years, but really took it seriously in 2024 when he joined Aussentwelt, an art collective. Since then, he’s had a fast evolution, cumulating many works and showcasing them in multiple exhibitions.
He is obsessed with the colour brown, and with it he depicts intimacy, friendships and me (a lot). I heard him call himself a contemporary of the 19th-century realist painters but with an iPhone, meaning he paints his day-to-day as a queer Gen-Z with unhinged compositions which refers to our quick access to smartphone photography.
-Written by Gabriel Marchi-Karzazi, lover
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Which ‘hood are you in?
I live and work in Ville-Marie. I have the best on each side, Hochelaga on one and the Village on the other!
What do you do?
I am a figurative oil painter. I explore queer identities and intimacy. I want to create images of gay romances and friendships that are optimistic, healthy and soft. It is important for me because we have seen so much violence, sex and trauma in homosexual stories, that it sometimes feels like the only option. I paint my daily life using iPhone photography as my starting point. Its unbalanced compositions illustrate our era given that we live in a social media-led society.
What are you currently working on?
I started a series that focuses on women and their role as allies in queer friendships. I have been hanging out on the bed next to friends doing their makeup before going out for years and I have collected quite a few photographs of it. They are moments of tenderness between us, where we discuss. They made me face the reality of sexism as they did with them for homophobia.
Where can we find your work?
I am until the end of May with Aussentwelt at l’Union Française de Montréal. After that, all the information will be on my Instagram or my website.
