Published: May 14, 2009 03:49 pm      

Houston alumna O'Neil wins hunting art prize

Houston area artist Robyn O'Neil, a Texas A&M University-Commerce alumna, has won the $50,000 Hunting Art Prize.

O'Neil of Kingwood was awarded the 2009 Hunting Art Prize recently at a Houston ceremony.

The $50,000 award is the most generous art prize presented annually in North America. It is given by Hunting PLC, an international oil services company.

O'Neil was chosen from 129 finalists in the second round of judging for her graphite drawing, "A Death, A Fall, A March: Toward a Better world."

More than 1,500 artists submitted digital files for the first round of judging. Each artist was allowed to enter one two-dimensional painting or drawing measuring no more than 72 inches on any side. The contest was open to established, emerging, and amateur artists from across Texas.

Alison de Lima Greene, Houston Museum of Fine Arts curator, said she takes "particular pleasure in seeing Ms. O'Neil receive this award since I have followed her career with interest since her student days at A&M-Commerce."

"It was Michael Miller, A&M-Commerce art faculty member, who first introduced us, and watching her work mature and gain in resonance over the past decade has been truly inspiring," de Lima Greene said.

O'Neil's work has been shown at museums and galleries around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; ArtPace, San Antonio; Dallas Museum of Art; V1 Galley, Copenhagen; Gallery Praz-Delavallade, Paris; and Hof & Huyser, Amsterdam.

A 2000 graduate of A&M-Commerce, O'Neil received the Artadia Grant from Artadia-The Fund for Art and Dialogue, New York in 2003, and was international artist-in-residence at ArtPace. She was included in the Whitney Biennial in 2004