Swedish–Iraqi designer and artist Sizar Alexis creates sculptural furniture and objects defined by stillness, weight and presence. Influenced by brutalism, ritual forms and personal memory, his work often seems suspended in time – familiar, but hard to place.
Based in Eskilstuna, an industrial city west of Stockholm with a long history of metalworking, Alexis works from a studio connected to his home. Captured by photographer and videographer Mikael Lundblad, the setting reflects his process – pieces emerging slowly from sketch to model to object, always shaped by intuition and restraint.
Material plays a central role in Alexis’s work. Many of his pieces are made in solid pine – a humble, often overlooked wood – which he burns to create texture, depth and tonal stillness. The result is an object that feels at once elemental and composed.
That quiet intensity runs through everything he makes. From sideboards and stools to undefined sculptural forms, Alexis’s work resists decoration. Instead, it draws you in by withholding. His goal isn’t to explain, but to hold space.
Much of Alexis’s creative logic stems from form. Geometric reduction, architectural massing, and ambiguity are all part of his vocabulary. His references range from monolithic religious buildings to mid-century brutalism – and in particular, the totem-like sculptures of Scottish artist Eduardo Paolozzi.
Each piece begins with pen and paper. Ideas arrive through drawing, then develop through 3D modelling – where proportions, weight and surface can be tested and refined. But it’s not just technical; Alexis also relies on instinct. “Maybe the most important tool I have is gut feeling,” he says. “Whether to keep going, or stop – I listen to that.”
For Alexis, a piece is only finished when it no longer asks for more. It’s a subtle moment – one that often arrives without warning, and only when he’s paying attention.
That sense of restraint runs deep in his practice. Objects are not rushed. Many live in his home before they are released – tested, observed and absorbed. It’s not just about what they do practically, but how they sit in a room. What they give off.
Though Alexis now operates with clarity and control, his entry into design was intuitive. After moving into his first flat in Eskilstuna, he struggled to find furniture that matched what he envisioned. Everything available felt either too expensive or too flat – lacking the presence he wanted in a space. So he made his own. “The process came naturally,” he says. “From sketch to finished object – I realised I could actually do this. That’s when I knew it was more than a project.”
That decision eventually led him to study at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm – one of Sweden’s leading schools for design and visual communication – where he graduated in 2019. His final project, a sculptural metal recycling bin, hinted at what would come: stripped-down form, quiet strength and an interest in utility without compromise.
But Alexis’s connection to objects runs deeper than school or training. He traces his sensibility back to his childhood – to long, slow days spent with his grandmother in northern Iraq. “She had cows, chickens, a garden full of fruit… There was a stillness to that time. A rhythm,” he recalls. “I think that atmosphere still lives in me. Maybe that’s what I’m trying to recreate.”
Alexis often refers to his work as storytelling; not through narrative, but through presence. His hope is that the objects will outlive him, carrying something forward.
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