Biography

Alexis HUNTER (1948 - 2014) worked with photography and painting to explore Feminist theory, with often provocative and radical results. After studying at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland (1966- 69), Hunter joined her sister in London in the early 1970s. A member of both the Artists Union Women’s Workshop and the Woman’s Free Arts Alliance in the '70s, Hunter was influenced by a growing move towards anti-patriarchy and used art as a tool to explore everything from capitalism, the male-dominated advertising industry, contemporary politics and feminism. Through the use of series and narrative sequences, she exposed the tyranny of fashion, domestic violence and the exploitation of women through iconic works, including The Models Revenge (1974), Domestic Warfare (1975),  Approaches to Fear (1977) and many others.

Hunter's works were recently included in the prestigious exhibition Women in Revolt!: Art, Activism and the Women’s movement in the UK 1970–1990 at Tate Britain, and touring to the National Galleries of Scotland (2024/25). She was included seminal exhibition 'WACK!, Art and The Feminist Revolution’ in 2007 at MOCA, Los Angeles and in 2018, 'Sexual Warfare’, a solo exhibition that inaugurated the Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art. Hunter was also included in the important exhibition curated by Lucy Lippard at the ICA in London, entitled Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists in 1980. 

Her work is in the collections of Tate, the Arts Council of Great Britain; Museum of New Zealand (Te’Papa); the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; the Verbund Collection and The Imperial War Museum, amongst others.