2023 Hotbox Residency

Jamie Lerman

June 17 - July 14

Jamie Lerman is a multidisciplinary artist interested in the cross pollination between ceramics, printmaking, and metalsmithing. Originally from Dallas, Lerman returned to Texas in 2020 after receiving her BFA in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. While assisting in ceramic and print shops, she discovered the overlap in materials the processes shared and set out to explore the mediums to their fullest. Lerman’s current investigations explore glaze chemistry, sculptural arrangements, and dinner parties: Doublecradle.com.

Alexis Hunter

July 15 - August 12

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). Recent solo and group exhibitions include INVASIVE SPECIES, ICOSA Collective Gallery, Austin, TX; Own it, examine it, and confront it head on, DORF, Austin, TX; Collective Thoughts, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA; and SBMRPVII, the Carver Museum, Austin, TX. She was selected to participate in Big Medium’s LINE Residency (2022), vol. 2 of the George Washington Carver Museum's Small Black Museum Residency Project (2022) and, most recently, Mass Gallery’s Hot Box Residency (2023). Alexis is a member of the artist-run collective, ICOSA, and a painting instructor at The Contemporary Austin's Art School at Laguna Gloria. She is currently nominated for The Austin Chronicle’s Best Visual Artist of 2023. Her work explores self-image through racial identity, mental health, the female body, and the male gaze.

For Hotbox, Hunter plans to continue her current series, HAVEN’T I GIVEN ENOUGH??!!, which challenges the policing of women’s bodies under the patriarchy and the misogynistic history of the world. This series is informed by several factors, one of them being her life-long insecurities about her own body and how she sees that experience intersecting with social constructs like western beauty standards and fatphobia. For Close Encounters, Hunter plans to test out an idea she has been excited about for a while: artist meet-up karaoke parties. The first such party will take place this Saturday, July 22nd!