Gross sales through the VIP preview of the inaugural Untitled Artwork Houston honest on Thursday (18 September) had been uneven in keeping with exhibitors, although lower-priced works specifically offered nicely. Curiosity about Houston and town’s first new honest in years has collaborating sellers feeling hopeful the occasion will assist kickstart a brand new nationwide appreciation for House Metropolis’s artwork scene.
Houston was beforehand house to 2 different now-defunct artwork festivals, the Houston Positive Artwork Honest and the Texas Up to date Artwork Honest. The Houston Positive Artwork Honest got here first, organised by Rick Friedman with Max Fishko on board as a guide. The 2 had a falling out, in keeping with the Houston Chronicle, and Fishko teamed up with Jeffrey Wainhouse to launch the Texas Up to date Artwork Honest. Native sellers say the dueling festivals, held weeks aside, didn’t work collectively to assist construct up the native artwork scene—however many Houstonians are optimistic about Untitled Artwork honest’s entry into the market.
“I used to be very sceptical to start with. My coronary heart’s been damaged too many occasions with artwork festivals right here,” says longtime Houston supplier Robert McClain, whose McClain Gallery took half within the earlier festivals in addition to the inaugural Untitled Artwork Houston. “I’ve actually been pleasantly shocked by the dedication of the honest organisers. This honest has been a catalyst for quite a lot of collectors who’ve reached out to us who knew Untitled was taking place. Simply the thrill of it appeared to spur them to make selections on shopping for different issues.”
McClain Gallery offered Life on a Merry-Go-Spherical (2010) by the Texas-born painter John Alexander for $125,000 through the VIP preview to a Houston-based collector, in keeping with the gallery. In addition they positioned two work by Dorothy Hood, a pioneering Modernist Texas artist, for $75,000 every. Houston has all the time had a robust marketplace for major materials by artists from the area, McClain provides.
Swan Mom (2022) by Clare Rojas at Jessica Silverman’s stand. Courtesy Untitled Artwork
The Houston-based gallery Sicardi Ayers Bacino reported essentially the most worthwhile transaction of the honest to this point, a piece by Carlos Cruz-Diez that offered for $415,000.
The San Francisco-based gallery Jessica Silverman positioned an version of Clare Rojas’s figurative bronze sculpture Swan Mom (2022) for $150,000, in keeping with the gallery. The work is featured within the honest’s Particular Displays part. On the gallery’s stand, it reported promoting a 2025 acrylic-on-cardboard work by Andrea Bowers for $38,000, Infinite Cat’s Whispers (2025) by Masako Miki for $20,000, in addition to Equilibrium (C.9) (2025) by Beverly Fishman for $55,000 and three editions of a 2025 tapestry by Rupy C. Tut for $20,000 every.
Philip Martin Gallery from Los Angeles says it offered a portray by Sky Glabushfor $25,000, whereas Stems gallery, first based in Brussels, offered a Olivier Souffrant portray or $24,000. The Manhattan-based supplier Hollis Taggart offered three work by Tim Kent; one for $32,000, and the opposite two for $12,000 every.
The Los Angeles-based gallery Megan Mulrooney offered out its stand of work by TJ Rinoski and Mason Owens, priced between $2,500 and $6,000, and $2,000 and $8,500, respectively, in keeping with the gallery. Simply two weeks in the past, the gallery had a equally profitable outing at The Armory Present in New York, promoting out its stand of works by the San Antonio-born artist Piper Bangs. (Final week, the gallery opened a solo present at its Hollywood headquarters devoted to the Austin-based painter RF. Alvarez.)
“I’ve all the time been a Texas fan. I present numerous Texan artists,” Megan Mulrooney says. “I had all the time had actually nice connections with collectors right here in Houston, in addition to nice artwork advisers, which I believe is essential to town. There are critical collectors right here who go to all of the festivals. So it actually made [Houston] a vacation spot that I used to be actually focused on.”
The Houston-based gallery Seven Sisters reported promoting two mixed-media work by Daniel Rios Rodriguez through the VIP preview. One went to Bay Space collectors for $7,000, the opposite to a Houstonian assortment, by way of a neighborhood artwork adviser, for $6,500. The gallery says it additionally offered a piece by the Houston-based sculptor Jamie Sterling Pitt for $2,800.
Time for a holistic take a look at Houston
Megan Mulrooney’s stand at Untitled Artwork Houston. Courtesy Untitled Artwork
The brand new honest “feels actually vibrant, like all the standard suspects are out, but in addition a very nice number of regional curators”, says Seven Sisters director Erin Dorn. “Having simply come off the heels of [The Armory Show], numerous curators and public sale home folks from Los Angeles and New York are interested by how it will unfold. That curiosity is starting numerous fascinating conversations, and I believe enthusiasm only for a extra holistic take a look at the Houston artwork scene.”
Sellers throughout the board cited Houston’s variety as a power for its artwork scene, permitting artists to entry a broad array of influences. Many additionally mentioned town’s big selection of artistic exhibition areas and infamous lack of zoning legal guidelines makes it simpler to create and present unconventional work right here.
“You may open one thing and possibly not have all that the planning or permits that that you must,” Dorn says. “It’s that form of wildcatter factor that Texas is understood for, proper? You construct it and then you definitely apologise later. Loads of enterprise folks in Houston have that confidence.”
The Houstonian artwork adviser Lea Weingarten referred to as town “a fantastically stored secret”.
“Folks stereotype us as being a typical southern metropolis, however we’ve got gems just like the Menil Assortment, the Museum of Positive Arts, Houston and we’ve got a kunsthalle within the Up to date Arts Museum Houston,” she says. “As a cultural vacation spot, we’re one of many few cities within the nation that has symphony, ballet, theatre and museums.”
However part of Houston’s “secret sauce” is its capacity to draw robust, rising skills because of a mix of a plethora of numerous venues to exhibit, a robust philanthropy scene that’s supportive of artists and a extra inexpensive value of residing in comparison with coastal artwork hubs like New York and Los Angeles, Weingarten says. Houston’s artwork market has additionally been capable of climate the worldwide downturn comparatively nicely, maybe aided by the area’s numerous financial system, she says.
“Right here in Texas, we’ve actually been robust, we’ve by no means actually had that dip. And when it comes to why folks come right here, I believe that they’re sensing the market,” Weingarten says. “Persons are spending cash. They’re constructing homes, they’re paying architects, they’re paying inside designers they usually’re paying artwork advisers, which signifies that we’re capable of assist them.”
Guardians of Tales and Land (2025) by Joya Mukerjee Logue. Courtesy Rajiv Menon Up to date
Rajiv Menon, who grew up within the Houston space earlier than founding his eponymous gallery devoted to South Asian artists in Los Angeles, says he offered a large-scale portray by Joya Mukerjee Logue to a Texas-based collector for $30,000, in addition to seven work by Mustafa Mohsin ranging in worth from $1,200 to $10,000.
Programming the proper social gathering
The honest’s director, Michael Slenske, was tasked with organising the honest’s exhibitors, touchdown on 88 sellers from 22 international locations, with almost one quarter hailing from Texas. This 12 months’s contributors vary from established New York Metropolis galleries headquartered in Chelsea to younger, scrappy Houston sellers.
“You need an artwork honest to have the curation of a superb social gathering,” Slenske says. “You don’t need everybody to be on the identical stage, and also you don’t need everybody to be from the identical place. You need folks to return right here and discover new issues, so it’s about discovery.”
Colector, a gallery hailing from Monterrey, Mexico with areas in Dallas and Houston, offered 9 works on paper by the native artist Angelbert Metoyer for $7,000 every. The collection of 14 works featured on the gallery’s stand was commissioned specifically for the honest to “give the chance for brand spanking new collectors to know”, says Jesús Alberto Flores, the gallery’s director.
Total, Untitled Artwork Houston exhibitors bringing extra inexpensive works and smaller items reported the next quantity of gross sales. This dynamic aligns with the findings of the latest version of the Artwork Market Report revealed by Artwork Basel and UBS, which discovered that gross sales of works priced beneath $50,000 elevated by 8% year-on-year in 2024, regardless of total world gross sales of artwork dropping by 12% over the identical interval. Nonetheless, not all sellers reported profitable gross sales throughout Thursday’s preview; some mentioned the honest’s format, designed with twists and turns to encourage guests to discover all of the stands, stored guests from visiting the exhibitors positioned within the again. Others mentioned that they had relied on distant gross sales organized earlier than the honest to maneuver stock and weren’t as profitable with in-person honest attendees through the VIP preview. Sellers had been hopeful gross sales would proceed over the weekend, not in contrast to the sluggish burn tempo that’s typical down the street on the Dallas Artwork Honest.
The Untitled Artwork honest’s founder Jeff Lawson first began Houston for an growth way back to 2013, however he and Slenske started severely sizing up town in preparation for the honest three years in the past. The artwork market was in a really totally different place then.
“It makes us much more delicate to the galleries’ wants, to speak with them extra, to work with them carefully, to actually hearken to what it’s that they want, and do the perfect that we will to assist them,” Lawsons says of the downturn available in the market because the speculative growth of 2021.
Slenske says the plan is to carry the honest once more subsequent 12 months in the identical venue, the George R. Brown Conference Middle downtown, and assist construct up town’s infrastructure.
“That is an artist’s city greater than anywhere in Texas,” Slenske says. “It’s the final metropolis of this scale to not have an artwork week, and I believe that’s an oversight. The extent of curators and artists on this metropolis might stack up towards numerous artwork capitals.”
- Untitled Artwork Houston, till 21 September, George R. Brown Conference Middle, Houston
