The Dallas Art Fair on Monday announced the creation of the Dallas ArtPrize, an annual award recognizing an artist who has made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual landscape of contemporary art.

The inaugural recipient of the $20,000 prize - sponsored by Bank of America - is John McAllister (right) whose work has been exhibited internationally for nearly two decades.

A native of Slidell, La., McAllister lives and works in Florence, Mass. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1999, and a master of fine arts degree from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., in 2007.

"Texas holds a very special place in my heart because it is where I developed the certainty that I would be an artist," McAllister said in a news release. "Attending the University of Texas and making frequent trips to Dallas to visit the museums had a huge impact on the early foundations of my practice."