“Invasive Species 2” Grows Bigger in Scope and Scale

It’s in the air, the water, and now it’s in our local art galleries & microcinemas! Yes, that’s right: Curated by Alexis Hunter, this October bears out “Invasive Species 2,” a multi-day and -disciplinary series where women artists invade male-dominated art biomes including the fine arts, film, and literature – changing their environment to one more hospitable to the feminine spirit. 

The invasion was first propagated in Hunter’s Haven’t I Given Enough painting series, a response to the 2022 overturning of landmark legal case Roe v. Wade. “That body of work came directly out of my fear and rage around the loss of my bodily autonomy,” Hunter recalls of the series, which featured the artist as towering kaijus like Godzilla “destroying a city of man.” Alongside co-curator Jacqueline Overby and 14 other women artists, Hunter made that expression of destruction wider-reaching through the original June 2023 group exhibition at ICOSA Gallery. 

“I really love the conceptual theming of invasive species,” says Hunter. “I like to think of it as we, as women, are invading these male-dominated ecosystems and environments, encroaching on their territory and pushing them out and taking over, just in the same way like kudzu vine.” Thus, much the same as the quick-growing vine that’s taken over trees, telephone poles, and houses across the South, “Invasive Species 2” this year expands beyond a single venue. Hunter credits this wider reach to applying for and getting awarded an Elevate grant through the Austin Arts, Culture, Music, and Entertainment Department, “which has enabled me to grow this project and imagine these vines and tendrils reaching out and infecting community partners and the influence spreading.”

Speaking of the infection spreading, this year’s schedule welcomes two new collaborators in Hyperreal Film Club and Host Publications. Over at HFC will be a weeklong feminist horror block – Oct. 12-16 – programmed by Austin School of Film’s Faiza Kracheni and Museum of Human Achievement’s Cynthia Muñoz, with screenings including creepy classics and cool shorts showcases. On Oct. 17, back at Future Front House, local women-led lit slingers Host Publications introduce an authorial element into the invasion via a panel discussion moderated by Annar Veröld with local pens Jasmine Games, Julie Poole, and Katy Horan offering their thoughts and readings. Both additional events make for “great opportunities to keep this, like, spider web growing,” Hunter adds. 

Just as in 2023, though, everything starts with a group art exhibition. Opening Friday, Oct. 9, will be a showcase of nine women’s work at 12th and Chicon culture hub the Future Front House, which will remain on display through the 31st. This time, however, the invasion of the hegemonic ecosystem has become more intersectional, with works exploring the queer, disabled, Black, and immigrant woman experience.

Hunter herself has a piece in the show much different than her previous creature-based creations. “My work since the first ‘Invasive Species’ is about transformation, loving yourself, healing, and being on the other side in this post-Roe v. Wade overturned world,” she says. Her painting, The Great Softening, is of herself flying through the sky and holding hands with her own reflection. The painting’s parenthetical summarizes this second go-around of the exhibition: (You must love yourself into evolution).

“That’s kind of like the vibe of this ‘Invasive Species’ [version],” Hunter says. “Like less of a place of rage and more of a place like ‘Let’s get out of this bitch together.’”

This article appears in October 9 • 2026.