Gross sales through the VIP preview of the inaugural Untitled Artwork Houston truthful on Thursday (18 September) have been uneven in keeping with exhibitors, although lower-priced works specifically offered nicely. Curiosity about Houston and the town’s first new truthful in years has taking part sellers feeling hopeful the occasion will assist kickstart a brand new nationwide appreciation for House Metropolis’s artwork scene.
Houston was beforehand dwelling to 2 different now-defunct artwork festivals, the Houston Superb Artwork Honest and the Texas Modern Artwork Honest. The Houston Superb Artwork Honest got here first, organised by Rick Friedman with Max Fishko on board as a marketing consultant. The 2 had a falling out, in keeping with 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 instances 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 stunned by the dedication of the truthful organisers. This truthful has been a catalyst for a variety of collectors who’ve reached out to us who knew Untitled was occurring. Simply the joy of it appeared to spur them to make choices 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 at all times had a robust 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 thus far, 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 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 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 at all times been a Texas fan. I present loads 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 feel is vital to the 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 all for.”
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 an area 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 have 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 standard suspects are out, but additionally a extremely nice number of regional curators”, says Seven Sisters director Erin Dorn. “Having simply come off the heels of [The Armory Show], loads of curators and public sale home individuals from Los Angeles and New York are interested by how this can unfold. That curiosity is starting loads of attention-grabbing conversations, and I feel enthusiasm only for a extra holistic have a look at the Houston artwork scene.”
Sellers throughout the board cited Houston’s variety as a energy for its artwork scene, permitting artists to entry a broad array of influences. Many additionally mentioned the 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 it’s good to,” Dorn says. “It’s that sort of wildcatter factor that Texas is understood for, proper? You construct it and you then apologise later. A whole lot of enterprise individuals in Houston have that confidence.”
The Houstonian artwork adviser Lea Weingarten referred to as the town “a fantastically saved secret”.
“Individuals stereotype us as being a typical southern metropolis, however we now have gems just like the Menil Assortment, the Museum of Superb 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 skill to draw sturdy, rising abilities because of a mixture of a plethora of various venues to exhibit, a robust philanthropy scene that’s supportive of artists and a extra inexpensive price of residing in comparison with coastal artwork hubs like New York and Los Angeles, Weingarten says. Houston’s artwork market has additionally been in a position to climate the worldwide downturn comparatively nicely, maybe aided by the area’s various financial system, she says.
“Right here in Texas, we’ve actually been sturdy, we’ve by no means actually had that dip. And by way of why individuals come right here, I feel that they’re sensing the market,” Weingarten says. “Individuals 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 in a position to help 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 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 celebration
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 12 months’s individuals 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 celebration,” Slenske says. “You don’t need everybody to be on the similar degree, and also you don’t need everybody to be from the identical place. You need individuals to come back 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 sequence of 14 works featured on the gallery’s stand was commissioned specifically for the truthful to “make it possible for brand spanking 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 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. Nevertheless, not all sellers reported profitable gross sales throughout Thursday’s preview; some mentioned the truthful’s format, designed with twists and turns to encourage guests to discover all of the stands, saved guests from visiting the exhibitors positioned within the again. Others mentioned they’d relied on distant gross sales organized earlier than the truthful to maneuver stock and weren’t as profitable with in-person truthful attendees through the VIP preview. Sellers have been hopeful gross sales would proceed over the weekend, not in contrast to the gradual burn tempo that’s typical down the highway on the Dallas Artwork Honest.
The Untitled Artwork truthful’s founder Jeff Lawson first began taking a look at Houston for an enlargement way back to 2013, however he and Slenske started significantly sizing up the 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 carefully, to essentially hearken to what it’s that they want, and do the most effective that we are able to to help them,” Lawsons says of the downturn available in the market because the speculative increase of 2021.
Slenske says the plan is to carry the truthful once more subsequent 12 months in the identical venue, the George R. Brown Conference Heart downtown, and assist construct up the 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 feel that’s an oversight. The extent of curators and artists on this metropolis may stack up in opposition to loads of artwork capitals.”
Untitled Artwork Houston, till 21 September, George R. Brown Conference Heart, Houston
