We’re looking forward to introducing you to Alexis Hunter. Check out our conversation below.
Alexis , a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
Something that makes me lose track of time would be any time spent out in nature. I love being in a big body of natural water with my friends or by myself. Anytime I’m floating on my back in Barton Springs, looking at the clouds above me, I definitely feel more present in my body. This was a great question because my current body of work centers around this notion!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi yall! My name is Alexis Hunter. I’m an Austin-based multidisciplinary artist whose work explores self-image through racial identity, mental health, the female body, and the male gaze. I’ve exhibited nationally and participated in residencies with Big Medium, the Carver Museum, and MASS Gallery. I was named The Austin Chronicle’s Best Visual Artist of 2023 and I teach painting at the Contemporary Austin’s Art School at Laguna Gloria! I do work with several non profit arts organizations including sitting on the advisory council for DORF gallery and the curatorial advisory board for Future Front Texas.
I’ve spent the year working toward my upcoming solo exhibition, “This Is A Wonderful Day. I’ve Never Seen This One Before…”, opening at Ivester Contemporary November 29th! Themes include healing, community, spirituality in nature, identity, and transformation, visualized through recurring motifs of water, clouds, and the body.
This exhibition includes paintings, video and sounds that capture the emotional and spiritual shifts that came to me over the past year from working through trauma, facing my fears, and changing my life, all while being held by intentionally built communities and their ritualistic practices like Swim Club, dance class, book club, and more. The work uses water as both a literal and symbolic presence, engaging its material qualities alongside its cultural and psychological associations with renewal, transience, and transformation. The magical healing powers of sacred bodies of natural water sources like Barton springs, Blue Hole, the San Marcos River, the Green Belt.
The title is a quote by Maya Angelou, whose words often speak to resilience, presence, and the quiet power of joy. I actually sourced this from a gratitude journal I spent the year 2024 filling up! In the context of this exhibition, the phrase serves as an acknowledgement of each day as a new opportunity for healing, connection, and becoming. To hold both the beauty and the strangeness of change. How can community and ritual become part of personal transformation? What does that look like?
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
My relationship with the water. I didn’t realize how deep that connection ran until I joined Swim Club in 2022. I had always loved the water, but never in the way I do now. Swim Club introduced me to the ritual of returning to Barton Springs pool again and again, and to the community that grows around that practice. Through water, I began to see myself differently — as part of the natural world, expansive and fluid, capable of both holding and being held. This relationship has shifted how I understand identity: not as something fixed, but as something all-encompassing, always in motion.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
You can do ANYTHING. You can be WHOEVER you want!!
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
Okay I asked my fiancé and this is what he said: “I find that so much of what you do is in service of giving people a sense of belonging. Not just that but yourself as well. You look for belonging and cherish the sense of belonging so much that you strive to give that sense to others.”
He’s so sweet! 🥲 But it’s true I do put effort into making sure others feel like they belong and are loved. Whether it’s at one of Jane Claire and I’s Big Bad Karaoke events, in my one of my classes, or at one of my weekly meet ups with dance class or Swim Club. I love my community!
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. When do you feel most at peace?
For the sake of not talking about Swim Club and nature again I’ll say I time I really feel at peace is a morning with perfect crisp weather, smooth jazz playing, hot coffee, in my robe and slippers 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alexishunter.studio
- Instagram: @m00n_daddy
