ALEX
SOLIS
MILWAUKEE, WI
@ALEXMDC
Before millions of people saw his work, before the collaborations, murals, designer toys, and viral illustrations, Alex Solis was a kid trying to find a way to communicate.
Before art was a career, it was communication.
Born in Mexico and raised in Milwaukee, Alex moved to the United States with his family when he was young, arriving in the middle of winter at a school that wasn't bilingual. He couldn't speak with the other kids, and making friends was difficult, so he drew. Drawing became more than something he was good at; it became a language of its own.
Growing up without many toys, video games, or other luxuries, Alex filled sheets of paper with characters and stories, creating worlds of his own. What started as a way to entertain himself became a way to process what was happening around him and express things he didn't yet have the words to say, beginning a conversation that, years later, would reach people around the world.
Alex didn't initially believe illustration could become his career. Instead, he moved into graphic design and web development, spending years learning how images, ideas, and communication work together before realizing those skills didn't have to pull him away from being an artist; they could help him become a better one.
He began applying everything he'd learned to his personal work, taking even the strangest and funniest ideas seriously enough to give them time, craft, and intention, and people started paying attention.
Alex became known for turning familiar pieces of pop culture sideways, finding a joke, contradiction, or unexpected story hiding inside characters we thought we already knew.
His Famous Chunkies series began with a question from his daughter while they were watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: How could these guys eat pizza all the time and still be in such great shape?
Alex drew an answer, and one illustration became a series of more than 150 characters that eventually expanded beyond the page into collectible designer toys.
Other projects, including Icons Unmasked, continued Alex's knack for taking something instantly recognizable and revealing an entirely different story underneath it, one that could be funny, absurd, or a little weird, but was rarely just a joke.
One idea Alex returns to again and again is that artists don't have to wait for the perfect project, client, or circumstance to create something meaningful.
For him, a traffic jam can become a drawing about traffic in space, a dog destroying something around the house can become a character, and a conversation with his daughter can grow into an entire body of work.
Even frustration, isolation, and the things in life we can't control become raw material.
That philosophy has carried Alex from childhood doodles to illustration, animation, murals, public art and collectible sculpture, with his work reaching audiences around the world and leading to collaborations with brands and cultural icons including Disney, Marvel, Sanrio, Red Bull, One Piece and Hilton.
Those names tell one part of the story, but the more interesting one began long before any of them knew him: a kid who couldn't communicate picked up a pencil, kept drawing, and eventually found people everywhere who understood exactly what he was saying.
Alex calls art his second language, and there's something in that idea that sits at the heart of the Canvas Series. Art gives us ways to communicate when ordinary language isn't enough, turning isolation into connection or frustration into humor, and sometimes allowing something deeply personal to become recognizable to a complete stranger.
For his Canvas Series artwork, Alex brings many of those ideas together in a strange, colorful world overflowing with flowers, characters, and hidden details.
At its center, a figure made entirely of scribbled pencil lines reaches up to draw a bright smile onto its own face, bringing the story back to the idea that has followed Alex since childhood: using art to express something that might otherwise be difficult to say.
Alex spent years developing that language, but his message to other artists is remarkably simple: don't wait for permission or for everything to be perfect. Take whatever life puts in front of you and make something from it; share it with the world and start a conversation of your own. You never know who might understand exactly what you're saying.
Meet the newest Canvas Series artist.
As Drop 009 in the BEWM Canvas Series, we're excited to welcome Alex Solis.
Get Drop 009 →