AUSTIN, TX.- The 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Exhibition, featuring new works by finalists for the second Arthouse Texas Prize, will be on view at Arthouse in Austin, Texas, from September 8 – November 11, 2007. The five finalists selected to participate in the biennial Arthouse Texas Prize Exhibition are Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Justin Boyd, Margarita Cabrera, Bill Davenport and Katrina Moorhead, one of whom will receive the $30,000 Arthouse Texas Prize. Celebrating the broad spectrum of creative voices in Texas’ contemporary art community, these artists explore subjects like the histories of different ethnic, racial, and cultural groups within the United States or the reappropriation of traditional forms of media, though each perspective is markedly different. Selected from 136 nominations presented by a knowledgeable group of art world professionals, these finalists represent some of the most innovative and talented artists working in Texas today. The 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize recipient will be announced at Arthouse’s annual gala on November 2, 2007.

First awarded to Eileen Maxson in November 2005, the Arthouse Texas Prize is the first-ever prize in Texas created to acknowledge the accomplishments of an emerging and/or under-recognized Texas-based artist. It is one of the largest regional visual arts awards in the United States and is given to a Texas-based visual artist working in any discipline. The prize encourages the growth of the state’s artistic community by providing the means for artists to develop their work while remaining based there and by bringing prominent international art professionals to Texas. Artists living in the state for the past three years are eligible for nomination and could not have had a solo exhibition at a major museum during that time.

The 2007 exhibition is curated by Arthouse Curator Elizabeth Dunbar and will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue and DVD featuring images and essays documenting the work and background of the five finalists. The Arthouse Texas Prize and exhibition present a unique and significant opportunity to bring attention to Texas’ rapidly growing and internationally relevant contemporary art scene.

The Finalists and Exhibition - Dawolu Jabari Anderson is a Houston-based painter who comments on the commoditization of African-American history by reappropriating vintage pop-cultural formats like comic-book covers, movie posters, and advertising. He participated in the 2006 Whitney Biennial and is a founding member of the Otabenga Jones & Associates Collective. Anderson is creating a new series of paintings for the Arthouse Texas Prize exhibition.

Justin Boyd employs a vast array of media in works that summon the traditions and spirituality of historically marginalized American subcultures, such as Native Americans, early African Americans and Shakers. Using such contemporary methods as digital videos and DJing to tell these stories, the San Antonio-based artist masterfully crafts multi-sensory experiences of history via objects and performance. For the Arthouse Texas Prize exhibition, Boyd will create an installation including audio, video and sculptural components that draws on his family history and life on the Mississippi River.

Margarita Cabrera is an El Paso resident who creates playful yet subtly provocative sculptural works by disassembling products made for the American consumer and rebuilding them using only their identifying parts and soft vinyl to replace their metal or plastic housing. Her handcrafted objects address issues related to Mexican immigration, border relations, economic exchange, dislocation and notions of the “American Dream.” For the Arthouse Texas Prize exhibition, Cabrera is working with local Mexican craftspeople living in Juarez and El Paso to create a life-size tractor from clay. Bill Davenport is a Houston resident whose sculpture and large-scale installations activate and transform the gallery spaces they inhabit. His work often pokes fun at art world conventions and attitudes and employs less-than-precious materials, such as Styrofoam and house paint. For the Arthouse Texas Prize exhibition, Davenport is creating an enormous stealth bomber piñata from papier-mâché as a response to current global unrest.

Katrina Moorhead is a transplant from Northern Ireland who now resides in Houston. Her practice centers on exploring the contrast between human and natural creation, often revealing new and beautiful relationships through otherwise mundane objects. In 2005 she participated in the Northern Ireland Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale, and her work is currently on view at the Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston. For this exhibition she is creating new work.

The Arthouse Texas Prize Jury - The second biennial Arthouse Texas Prize jury will be chaired by Arthouse’s Executive Director, Sue Graze, and includes Frances Colpitt, Deedie Potter Rose Chair of Art History, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth; Eileen Maxson, 2005 Arthouse Texas Prize recipient; Debra Singer, Executive Director and Chief Curator, The Kitchen, New York; and Franklin Sirmans, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Menil Collection in Houston. In February 2007, the jury, which also included Elizabeth Dunbar, then-Curator at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, convened to select the five finalists from 136 nominations.

2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Sponsors - The Arthouse Texas prize is supported in 2007 by Johnna and Stephen Jones, Jeanne and Michael Klein, Chris Mattsson and John McHale, Mary and Chris Ozburn, Lora Reynolds and Quincy Lee, Julie and John Thornton, Mary and Howard Yancy, The Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, the Stillwater Foundation, and The Susan Vaughan Foundation.

2007 Arthouse Public and Education programs are supported by AT&T. Additional support for 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Arthouse Texas Prize Founders - The Arthouse Texas Prize is generously supported by Deborah Green, Johnna and Stephen Jones, Chris Mattsson and John McHale, Mecom/Mullins Family, Mary and Chris Ozburn, Julie and John Thornton, Ed Vaughan, Mary and Howard Yancy, Austin Ventures, the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation and the Stillwater Foundation.