This post was originally published on artnews.com
Untitled Art, which for 12 years has mounted an art fair on the sands of Miami Beach, will expand across the Gulf of Mexico, with plans to host an event in Houston next year.
The first edition of the Houston fair will run September 19–21, with a VIP preview on September 18, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which was recently approved to build a new building in 2025 as part of a three-decade, $2 billion initiative to transform that part of downtown Houston.
“We’ve been looking at Houston for a very long time—it’s been on our radar since about 2014,” Untitled founder Jeffrey Lawson told ARTnews, citing a recent report that put arts-related spending in Houston in 2022 at $1.3 billion. Dallas, meanwhile, had $854 million in spending and Fort Worth had $507 million. “Houston itself as a market is the largest market in Texas, and Houston is the fourth largest city in the country. There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity that’s happening in Houston right now, and it just makes a lot of sense to bring a really good art fair to the city.”
Untitled Art, Houston will be directed by Michael Slenske, a Los Angeles–based writer and curator who has been traveling to Houston for over a decade in his ongoing editorial coverage of the city for W and Architectural Digest. About two years ago, Slenske approached Lawson about seriously considering launching a new fair in the city.
“I think it’s a surprising scene if you look at from the outside,” Slenske told ARTnews. “A lot of people, even dealers and artists, think about Dallas a lot because there’s a fair, but if you go to Houston, the cultural infrastructure there is unbelievable. The money that pours into it is amazing.”
Slenske pointed to the fact that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston recently completed a major expansion, while the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is currently in the early stages of a major expansion. The US art market, too, has had an eye toward Houston this year. This year’s edition of the Art Dealers Association of America’s Art Show had a special focus on the Texan city. The fair’s September dates also coincide with Houston’s gala season.
When Untitled launched in 2014, it did so as a satellite fair to Art Basel Miami Beach, which debuted in the South Florida city in 2002. With the Houston fair, Untitled will be the first fair in town, and that was part of the reasoning for looking there instead of other US cities that already have similar events, like Los Angeles or Chicago.
“It gives us an absolutely blank slate to go into the market there and work with all levels of galleries,” Lawson said. “Houston is trending to be the third largest city in the country. In theory, in the beginning, it could have been a regional fair, but realistically, with the trajectory of Texas and Houston, we have every reason to believe that this can be a very international market for the fair and the art community.”
Despite the ongoing concerns of the strength of the art market, Lawson said that Untitled felt that it was as good a time as any to launch a new fair. “We’re all reading the tea leaves right on the market, but we don’t quite know,” he said. “This is an excellent opportunity to introduce a new market. This is a great opportunity to give artists and galleries a new place to go to showcase their work and do more business.”
The full exhibitor list for the Houston fair will be announced next spring and number around 50 exhibitors, who will be invited by Untitled. The fair, however, has confirmed some galleries that have already signed on to participate, including Jessica Silverman Gallery, Various Small Fires, Half Gallery, and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles in its main section, as well as 12.26, Seven Sisters, Martha’s, and Megan Mulrooney in its Nest section for emerging galleries.
“The idea is to grow it organically,” Lawson said. “For the last two years, we’ve been listening to the market, talking to the people on the ground, exhibitors, collectors, and build it slowly. We don’t want to come in with this big splash, but with a with a steady approach.”