KATRINA MOORHEAD
NAMED RECIPIENT OF 30,000 DOLLARS 2007
ARTHOUSE TEXAS PRIZE
Katrina Moorhead, who was born in Northern Ireland, has resided in Houston for more than ten years. 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 was recently the subject of a solo exhibition at the Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston. For the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize Exhibition she has meticulously handcrafted boxes of spent fireworks and strings of unexploded fireworks using paper mâché, archival paper, and silver leaf. Each firework’s potential explosion refers to the forms of dragons, flowers, and the like, and the strings serve to symbolize a chain of events in the three different romantic courtships.
According to the jury, “The 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize finalists all created new work that demonstrates a level of maturity, individual ambition, and execution. Because the five artists’ works were strong, our selection becomes one of subjective response. Katrina Moorhead, the prize recipient, brings together in her work ideas and concepts related to her recent experience in Iceland. Her installation at Arthouse expresses her exceptional ability to create objects resonant with individual and universal meaning. The clarity and complexity of the artist’s vision as well as her distinctly personal touch, evident in the handcrafted quality of her objects, are among the qualities that informed our decision to award Moorhead the 2007 Arthouse
Texas Prize.”
The Arthouse Texas Prize encourages the growth of the state’s artistic community by providing the means for artists to develop their work while remaining based in Texas and by bringing prominent international art professionals to the state. Artists living in Texas for the past three years are eligible for nomination but could not have had a solo exhibition at a major museum during that time. Works created especially for the Arthouse Prize exhibition by prize recipient Katrina Moorhead along with the other four finalists Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Justin Boyd, Margarita Cabrera, and Bill Davenport are featured in a special exhibition at Arthouse where they will remain on view until November 11, 2007. A catalogue accompanied by a DVD featuring images, essays and videos of the works being created was produced for the exhibition.
The Arthouse Texas Prize Jury
The second biennial Arthouse Texas Prize jury was chaired by Arthouse’s Executive Director, Sue Graze, and includes Frances Colpitt, Deedie Potter Rose Chair of Art History, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth; Elizabeth Dunbar, Curator, Arthouse; 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 convened to select the five finalists from 136 nominations.
About Arthouse
Headquartered at the Jones Center in Austin, Texas, Arthouse is the oldest statewide contemporary art organization in Texas. Arthouse seeks to promote the growth and appreciation of contemporary art and artists in Texas. Through its exhibitions and programs in Austin and statewide, Arthouse helps nurture artists’ careers and deepen public understanding of contemporary art.
For more information on Arthouse, please visit www.arthousetexas.org or contact Virginia Jones at 512-453-5312 or vjones@arthousetexas.org
Media Contact
Kellie Honeycutt
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Image above:
KATRINA MOORHEAD
RedGreenBluePeony, 2007
archival board, archival paper, wheat starch paste, rice paste,
graphite, gouache
5’ x 5’ x 6”
Commissioned for the 2007 Arthouse Texas Prize
Courtesy of the artist and Inman Gallery, Houston, TX
Photo: Shuane Kolber