INVASIVE SPECIES

A group exhibition featuring works by Courtney Cone, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Sarah Fox, Jessica Gritton, Katy Horan, Alexis Hunter, Intel Lastierre, Kim Le, Chantal Lesley, Hayley Labrum Morrison, Jacqueline Overby, Sara Vanderbeek, Desireé Vaniecia, and Tanya Zal.

Curated by: Alexis Hunter and Jacqueline Overby

INVASIVE SPECIES is a group exhibition, curated by Alexis Hunter and Jacqueline Overby, featuring fourteen women-identifying artists examining womanhood in a multi-generational habitat of male-ordained moral, sexual, and spiritual repression and exploitation. Each artist has her own unique perspective and biome of references. Whether it’s religious trauma, generational trauma, sexual trauma, or revenge, INVASIVE SPECIES is an opportunity to explore these painful themes from many perspectives like that of a fat woman, a trans woman, a Black woman, a formerly incarcerated woman, a survivor, and a mother.

An invasive species is a harmful, nonnative organism that expands its range from the site of its original introduction. In an ecosystem designed by and occupied by men, these women-identifying artists and women everywhere are invading male-dominated environments. It’s not just about rebellion or revenge, it’s a fight for survival. The issues that many of these artists are responding to are viewed by many as dismissible. But this begs the question, at what point will these voices be taken seriously? When surviving and responding to the greater issues present in our biome, maybe becoming invasive ourselves is the only way to be truly heard.

Alexis Hunter is an identity-based, multidisciplinary artist currently living and working in Austin, TX. She earned her BFA from Texas State University in Studio Art, with a concentration in painting, graduating summa cum laude (2022). Alexis is the founder of Others, an ongoing publication project documenting the faces and stories of biracial individuals in central Texas. Her work explores self-image through racial identity, mental health, the female body, and the male gaze.

Jacqueline Overby (b. 1991, San Antonio, TX) currently lives and works in Austin and San Marcos, TX. A multi-disciplinary artist, Overby takes inspiration from her experiences with body dysmorphia, history of trauma and mental health. Looking at childhood cartoon aesthetic, pop cultural standards and commodification of the female body, she is interested in the feminine, the masculine, and the non-binary in their relation to exaggerated geometric form and sexual innuendo.