3 Queer Makers Pushing The Boundaries Of Design

Just as life breeds art, art breeds expression—and that internal joy of creativity is what keeps the cycle moving. It’s beautiful to witness the inner creation of LGBTQIA+ makers and how they explore the full complexity of queerness, sexuality, and gender in their work. Aside from the joys of creating, many queer makers also are using their craft to reclaim space, tell their own stories, and proudly celebrate their identities.

In a maker’s hands, materials become more than just material—they become a story made from earthen clay, tufted rugs, scrap metals, and porcelain. Such narratives reflect ancient traditions and experiences around leaving one’s country in pursuit of new life, self love and reflection. Spotlighted here are works by queer makers Adam Chau, Cynthia Ugwudike, and Leilah Babirye, which are as compelling and as they are emotionally-built, offering a new perspective of feeling and remembering.

Discover How These Queer Makers Use Their Craft To Reclaim Identity

Adam Chau Honors Queer Intimacy Through Chinese Porcelain

Usually, his works are made from a blue and white porcelain which is a signature stamp and that comes from an explanation to have his works exist in the canon of art history but also because of the use of historic parallels with his Chinese heritage which gives him a guide.

Being queer is what fuels his passion as an artist the most. “Living a queer life is enough to give me inspiration, rage, appreciation, and a voice. It is the one element that has guided my art practice into thinking of how I can make the world a little bit more beautiful and kinder,” he says.

Cynthia Ugwudike Weaves Queer Stories Through Textiles

Cynthia Ugwudike‘s passion for rug tufting started in early 2024. She had seen so many videos about rug tufting on TikTok and Instagram, which had stirred a huge curiosity in her. The Lagos, Nigeria-based maker began by researching as her own way of unraveling the practice, which she mentions is a rare one in Nigeria. However, when she began exploring it, she quickly fell in love with it. While the process has been gradual and straightforward, weaving a story is something she describes as interesting. 

Luckily, she was able to pick it up quickly—thanks to her year-long experiences as an illustrator and product designer, which has given her a seamless trail that confidently describes her oeuvre, even as a multidisciplinary artist. Her debut body of work is a series of rug tufted art pieces titled In the Eyes of my Lover, curated by journalist Chisom Peter Job. The work comes as a fulfillment of her internal fantasy and her imagination of a lover who is secretly watching her, allowing her to fully express her inner creativity and live through in the gazes of another person who is in love with her.

“The idea came to me after a small heartbreak in 2023,” she says. “After the heartbreak, I realized that a lot of myself was pouring into people; the type of pouring that is based on excitement. So, I’m not usually really angry when something ends because of what I’ve done or what I’ve given. I’m usually sad about how things end when it ends in a way that feels too abrupt without explanation.”

During this period, she also moved houses and recalls spending most days alone, thinking. At first, Ugwudike imagined the project from the point of view of her friends and what gazes they had on her so she asked all her friends to send her pictures of herself that they liked, but none did. Then, she reimagined what it would look like having a lover stare at her, taking in everything she would want them to know about her, love about her, and care about her. “I had to internalize the notion I was being looked at by someone that loves me.” she says.

In one of the exhibited pieces, she sits in this lucid world, while hands reach for her figure in the piece. The hands are made to give a genderless appeal, she says, which is why they are tufted, but also serve as a means to fulfill the illusion of a lover.

While she’s currently working on new works that fully embody queerness, she’s enjoying Pride in Lagos—especially the extravagant balls—and fully immersing her spirit to all the joys it brings.

Leilah Babirye Molds Sculptures Speaking Boldly Of Queer Identity

For the sculptor Leilah Babirye, making works that confront the erasure and criminalization of LGBTQIA+ people in Uganda, especially under anti-gay laws, is very important to her and her practice. The artist has always been very vocal about queer rights. In 2015, Babirye was publicly outed as a lesbian by the press—a moment that would alter the course of her life and career. The exposure led to family conflict, particularly with her father, and her name appeared in local newspapers, effectively putting her safety and future in jeopardy. “That’s when I started applying for artist residencies,” she says, marking the beginning of her journey into international art spaces and queer activism through sculpture and ceramics.

Now with more than a decade of practice, her politically charged works speak boldly of queer identity and what it means to live authentically as a queer woman in the face of erasure. She uses sculpture as a medium, and her works are essentially made out of discarded materials like scrap metal, rubber, wire, nails, bicycle tires, and chains.

A closer look at her works indicate the sculptures are figurative, often reflecting a face with exaggerated features: elongated necks, broad shoulders, intricate headdresses and are adorned with crown-like headpieces, earrings made from found objects. They are expressive and hold many meanings.

Names also play an important subject in her works and that comes from queer erasure. “When I was growing up, people would say queer people don’t belong to clans… So I started naming the sculptures with those names. You belong. You are not rubbish.” she says.

She currently has a new exhibition opened at Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin until June 28, 2025. It’s titled Ekimyula Ekijjankunene (The Gorgeous Grotesque), which is Babirye’s means of embracing duality—the beautiful and the unsettling, the polished and the raw. Multi-material drawings titled Kuchu Ndagamuntu (Queer Identity Card) present dignified portraits of queer and trans individuals.