Gross sales throughout the VIP preview of the inaugural Untitled Artwork Houston truthful on Thursday (18 September) have been uneven based on exhibitors, although lower-priced works particularly bought nicely. Curiosity about Houston and town’s first new truthful in years has collaborating sellers feeling hopeful the occasion will assist kickstart a brand new nationwide appreciation for Area Metropolis’s artwork scene.
Houston was beforehand residence to 2 different now-defunct artwork festivals, the Houston High-quality Artwork Honest and the Texas Modern Artwork Honest. The Houston High-quality Artwork Honest got here first, organised by Rick Friedman with Max Fishko on board as a guide. The 2 had a falling out, based on the Houston Chronicle, and Fishko teamed up with Jeffrey Wainhouse to launch the Texas Modern Artwork Honest. Native sellers say the dueling festivals, held weeks aside, did not work collectively to assist construct up the native artwork scene—however many Houstonians are optimistic about Untitled Artwork truthful’s entry into the market.
“I used to be very sceptical at first. My coronary heart’s been damaged too many occasions with artwork festivals right here,” says longtime Houston vendor Robert McClain, whose McClain Gallery took half within the earlier festivals in addition to the inaugural Untitled Artwork Houston. “I’ve actually been pleasantly stunned by the dedication of the truthful organisers. This truthful 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 bought Life on a Merry-Go-Spherical (2010) by the Texas-born painter John Alexander for $125,000 throughout the VIP preview to a Houston-based collector, based on the gallery. In addition they positioned two work by Dorothy Hood, a pioneering Modernist Texas artist, for $75,000 every. Houston has at all times had a powerful marketplace for main 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 probably the most useful transaction of the truthful to this point, a piece by Carlos Cruz-Diez that bought 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, based on the gallery. The work is featured within the truthful’s Particular Shows 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 bought a portray by Sky Glabush for $25,000, whereas Stems gallery, first based in Brussels, bought a Olivier Souffrant portray for $24,000. The Manhattan-based vendor Hollis Taggart bought three work by Tim Kent; one for $32,000, and the opposite two for $12,000 every.
The Los Angeles-based gallery Megan Mulrooney bought 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, based on 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 at all times been a Texas fan. I present a variety of Texan artists,” Megan Mulrooney says. “I had at all times 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 considering.”
The Houston-based gallery Seven Sisters reported promoting two mixed-media work by Daniel Rios Rodriguez throughout 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 bought 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 truthful “feels actually vibrant, like all the same old suspects are out, but additionally a extremely nice choice of regional curators”, says Seven Sisters director Erin Dorn. “Having simply come off the heels of [The Armory Show], a variety of curators and public sale home folks from Los Angeles and New York are interested in how it will unfold. That curiosity is starting a variety of attention-grabbing conversations, and enthusiasm 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 stated town’s big selection of inventive exhibition areas and infamous lack of zoning legal guidelines makes it simpler to create and present unconventional work right here.
“You’ll be able to open one thing and possibly not have all thr planning or permits that you’ll want to (in different cities),” Dorn says. “It’s that form of wildcatter factor that Texas is understood for, proper? You construct it and you then apologise later. Plenty of enterprise folks in Houston have that confidence.”
The Houstonian artwork adviser Lea Weingarten referred to as town “a superbly saved secret”.
“Folks stereotype us as being a typical southern metropolis, however we now have gems just like the Menil Assortment, the Museum of High-quality Arts, Houston and we now have a kunsthalle within the Modern 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 potential to draw robust, rising abilities due to a plethora of numerous venues to exhibit, a powerful philanthropy scene that’s supportive of artists and a extra inexpensive price of dwelling 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 artwork market 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 by way of 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 and so they’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 Modern
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 bought 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 get together
The truthful’s director, Michael Slenske, was tasked with organising the truthful’s exhibitors, touchdown on 88 sellers from 22 international locations, with practically one quarter hailing from Texas. This yr’s members vary from established New York Metropolis galleries headquartered in Chelsea to younger, scrappy Houston sellers.
“You need an artwork truthful to have the curation of a great get together,” Slenske says. “You don’t need everybody to be on the identical degree, 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, bought 9 works on paper by the native artist Angelbert Metoyer for $7,000 every. The sequence of 14 works featured on the gallery’s stand was commissioned specifically for the truthful to “give the chance for brand new collectors to understand”, says Jesús Alberto Flores, the gallery’s director.
General, Untitled Artwork Houston exhibitors bringing extra inexpensive works and smaller items reported a better quantity of gross sales. This dynamic aligns with the findings of the newest version of the Artwork Market Report revealed by Artwork Basel and UBS, which discovered that gross sales of works priced below $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 stated the truthful’s format, designed with twists and turns to encourage guests to discover all of the stands, saved some attendees from visiting the exhibitors positioned within the again. Others stated they’d relied on distant gross sales organized earlier than the truthful to maneuver stock and weren’t as profitable in-person throughout the VIP preview. Sellers have been hopeful gross sales would proceed over the weekend, not not like the sluggish burn tempo that’s typical down the highway on the Dallas Artwork Honest.
The Untitled Artwork truthful’s founder Jeff Lawson first began Houston for an enlargement way back to 2013, however he and Slenske started severely sizing up town in preparation for the truthful three years in the past. The artwork market was in a really completely different place then.
“It makes us much more delicate to the galleries’ wants, to speak with them extra, to work with them intently, to essentially take heed to what it’s that they want, and do the perfect that we are able to to assist them,” Lawsons says of the downturn out there for the reason that speculative growth of 2021.
Slenske says the plan is to carry the truthful once more subsequent yr 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 anyplace 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 may stack up towards a variety of artwork capitals.”
Untitled Artwork Houston, till 21 September, George R. Brown Conference Middle, Houston
