The Texas Prize recognizes innovation, talent, and a marked contribution to a thriving Texas artistic community.  A diverse group of Texas-based professionals nominates several contemporary artists. A separate international jury of artists, curators and scholars then selects three finalists for an exhibition and full-color catalogue. One finalist receives a $30,000 prize — the most significant ongoing initiative supporting emerging and under-recognized professional artists working in the state.

2012 Texas Prize Finalists:

Jamal Cyrus is a mixed media artist whose work addresses revisionist history, radical politics, and the various uses of sound throughout the African Diaspora. (Houston)

Will Henry’s paintings combine austere West Texas landscapes with Minimalist art to achieve mysterious effects and dry humor. (Houston)

Jeff Williams uses natural phenomena and industrial materials to create site-specific sculptural works that intervene in a structures architecture. (Austin)

2012 Texas Prize Jurors:

Bill Arning, Director, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston

Gary Carrion-Murayari, Associate Curator, New Museum

Phillip Kaiser, Senior Curator, Musuem of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; in April 2012 Director, Museum Ludwig

Katrina Moorhead, 2007 Texas Prize Recipient

Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, Director and Chief Curator, Aspen Art Museum

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

2012 TEXAS PRIZE SPONSORS: Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Michael A. Chesser, Jerry & Sam Gore, Christopher C. Hill & Rodolfo Choperena, Jones Villalta Asset Management, Jeanne & Mickey Klein, and Chris Mattsson & John McHale
2012 EXHIBITION SPONSORS: Austin Ventures, Greenberg Traurig, Intercontinental Hotel–Stephen F. Austin, Jones Villalta Asset Management, Oxford Commercial, and Pedernales Cellars
2012 EXHIBITION SUPPORTERS: Vinson & Elkins LLP