A pool in Miami with ceramic tile work designed by Alex Proba.
Photo: Jay Guzman
Creative Mind: Alex Proba
Joy and excitement are palpable in the Brooklyn and Portland artist’s exuberant graphics, which enliven everything from hand-tufted rugs and ceramic pools to pet accessories and restaurant murals
Alexa Proba in her studio in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Parker Fitzgerald
Every possible surface is a canvas for Alex Proba, the prolific artist whose exuberant patterns and swirling shapes inject energy and delight into surprising places. She launched her namesake studio—now with offices in Portland, Oregon, and Brooklyn, New York—in 2013 while working full-time as an art director for Nike but fully committed five years later, when the design sphere discovered that her vivid graphics elevate home furnishings and accessories. That sparked a spate of collaborations—Louis Vuitton, CC-Tapis, Samsung—and led to Proba launching her own collection, encompassing everything from hand-tufted rugs and wallpaper murals to side tables and pet accessories. “The most resonating comment I get about my work is that it makes people so happy,” she says. “That’s what motivates me.”
Murals remain her studio’s most successful endeavor, but lately she has garnered acclaim for her work on swimming pools. Her latest, a tropical-reef-inspired affair for a client in Miami, required a puzzle-like arrangement of artisanal tiles, for which she collaborated with Guadalajara, Mexico, artisan workshop Cerámica Studio.
Vibrant tilework transforms a pool in Miami into a living canvas. Photo: Leigh Webber
Up next: Beyond expanding her array of home accents with more rugs and pillows, she’s working on footwear for adults and children for a major shoe brand and natural stone benches and public sculptures for SolidNature. She recently unveiled ceiling murals for the hallways at The Manner, the buzzy new Standard International hotel in SoHo, New York, designed by Hannes Peer.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Spring Issue under the headline “Creative Minds.” Subscribe to the magazine.
A collection of rugs designed in collaboration with Gossamer magazine. Photo: Sean Davidson
A mural inside the first location of Cucina Alba in NYC. Photo: Sean Davidson
Hand-painted mural inside a luxury Japanese restaurant in Tampa, Florida. Photo: Studio Proba
A collaboration with Samsung. Photo: Courtsey of Samsung US
A collage of Proba's sculptural shapes, disassembled before a gallery show in NYC. Photo: Sean Davidson
Cover: A pool in Miami with ceramic tile work designed by Alex Proba.
Photo: Jay Guzman
