FiPP 25 - Selection Panel BW

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 was named The Austin Chronicle’s Best Visual Artist of 2023 and was a finalist for Big Medium’s 2023 Tito’s Prize. Her work explores self-image through racial identity, mental health, the female body, and the male gaze.

Emmy Laursen is Curator of Programs & Engagement at The Contemporary Austin. She curates programming that brings audiences closer to the themes of the museum’s exhibitions through performances, artist talks, and other opportunities. Since receiving her BFA in Studio Art at The University of Texas at Austin in 2015, she has served the Austin art community through exhibition curation, event organizing, and artist engagement at organizations including Landmarks, Pump Project, Art Alliance Austin, Print Austin, George Washington Carver Museum, Prizer Arts & Letters, grayDUCK Gallery and Elisabet Ney Museum. She currently serves on the board for DORF. Her experience has reinforced her commitment to advocating for programs and space at the intersection of people and community. She recently received her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and runs a private therapy practice.

Eric Manche is the Founder and Creative Director at DORF, an artist, filmmaker, animator, and creative director living in Austin, Texas. His first feature length film, “Slimed,” was released by cult film company Troma Entertainment in 2018. He is a founder of satirical video collective Basic Cable Television, a group formed in 2006 while a student at Rhode Island School of Design. He is currently finishing Basic Cable Television’s first full-length episode, and recently completed the 10-episode children’s art education series, “A Day at Laguna Gloria”, in collaboration with The Contemporary Austin. Manche is the Founder and Creative Director at Bingo Bango Creative, a boutique video/audio production house providing visually compelling video, animation, and creative content to help their clients’ brands shine.

Paloma Mayorga is a Mexican American interdisciplinary artist and independent curator born and based in Austin, Texas. She earned a BA in Painting from the Sarofim School of Fine Arts at Southwestern University, and has gone on to exhibit her work across Texas and nationally. Most recently, her work was exhibited at the Texas Biennial in Houston, TX,  ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, MI, Artpace in San Antonio, TX, The Contemporary Austin, and Big Medium in Austin, TX. Mayorga also received the Emerging Artist Award from the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Best Visual Artist by the Austin Chronicle Reader’s Poll, and Southwestern University’s 18 Under 40 Award.

In 2022, Mayorga began an ongoing curatorial project titled Yo trabajo con la tierra / I work with the earth that brings ecofeminist perspectives to the forefront. The first iteration of this project was presented at Big Medium in Austin, TX. The work exhibited included performance, photography, video, installation, and sculpture, and evoked a collaborative relationship with nature prompting a sense of kinship to the earth, and consequently, a more empathetic understanding of ourselves and each other.

Lise Ragbir has dedicated her 20-year career to creating access to a range of art experiences. She has worked with corporate and public collections, non- and for-profit organizations, and organized exhibitions featuring artists Dawoud Bey, Genevieve Gaignard, Jacob Lawrence, and Deborah Roberts, among others. She is the co-editor of Collecting Black Studies: The Art of Material Culture (2020), and her essays about race, identity, immigration, and cultural representation have appeared in Hyperallergic, Frieze, Artnet, The Guardian, Time Magazine, USA Today, The Boston Globe and other publications. Lise is a graduate of Harvard University’s Museum Studies program.

Sara Vanderbeek is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and advocate based in Austin, TX. Her work responds to place, policy, motherhood, mental health, and trauma. She has engaged in projects at venues nationally, including The Contemporary Austin (TX); Bentonville Film Festival at Cache (AR); Co-Lab Projects (TX) Facebook Open Arts (TX), and Tiger Strikes Asteroid (TSALA) (CA). Her work is widely collected and included in private, public, and institutional collections internationally. 

Vanderbeek is the Founding Executive Director & Curator at DORF, an artist-run experimental contemporary art space that provides a platform for artists and advocacy initiatives. As an advisor, she has formed several notable private and public art collections including Texas Municipal Retirement System (TX) and University Health (TX) and was a founding member and board president of ICOSA Collective (TX). She began her career as a Specialist at Christie’s Auction House in New York where she gained professional training in art appraising, cataloguing, and sales. She has received grants from the City of Austin Economic Development Department, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Christie’s Auction House, National Endowment for the Arts, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and was a finalist for the 2022 Artpace International Artist-In-Residence Program. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design.