The contemporary Untitled Art fair that has run during Miami Art Week for more than a decade will expand to Houston next year in a move organisers say will capitalise on the city’s thriving art scene and growth throughout Texas.
The fair is scheduled to take place 18-21 September 2025, starting with a VIP and press-preview day, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston. Untitled Art describes the event as a “boutique invitational fair”, and founder Jeffrey Lawson tells The Art Newspaper that he expects around 50 galleries to take part, though exhibitors have not yet been finalised.
Galleries that have confirmed participation are a mix of local Texas institutions and dealers from further afield. Exhibitors include Seven Sisters from Houston, 12.26 from Dallas and Martha’s from Austin. Los Angeles’s Various Small Fires—which has a Dallas location—will also take part, along with Jessica Silverman Gallery from San Francisco, Half Gallery from New York and Megan Mulrooney and Luis De Jesus, both from Los Angeles. The full list of galleries will be announced in the spring. Lawson, together with the writer and curator Michael Slenske and Untitled Art executive director Clara Andrade Pereira, will select exhibitors.
Lawson says that Untitled Art previously explored a Houston fair back in 2014, before ultimately launching a now-folded San Francisco edition. In the decade since, Houston and the rest of Texas have experienced a huge population boom that outpaces the growth of most of the US. Houston has announced a $2bn investment in the downtown area surrounding its convention centre using funds from state taxes on the area’s hotel rooms, which Lawson says came into play with the decision to hold the art fair at the centre. Art institutions in Houston have also doubled down on expansion projects in the past decade.
Slenske will serve as Untitled Art Houston’s director. Based in Los Angeles, he first visited Houston for a friend’s wedding and was struck by the flourishing art scene in the “nooks and crannies” of the city, which famously has no zoning laws.
“There was so much cultural infrastructure—the food, the museums, the galleries. So many artists and people doing fashion and hotels,” Slenske says. “It seemed like a sleeping giant, like this untapped wonderland.”
While Houston may be overlooked by many on the coasts, the city of 2.3 million people is the fourth-largest in the US by population and home to some of Texas’s most established art institutions and commercial galleries, as well as seasoned collectors. Just last month, the Art Dealers Association of America spotlighted Houston galleries at The Art Show, its annual fair in New York City.
Texas as a whole is gaining more recognition in the art market, with cities like Dallas and Austin home to growing scenes. Untitled Art will hold events leading up to the Houston fair to engage with collectors, artists and galleries, Lawson says. Earlier this month, Untitled Art held a VIP weekend in Austin and is planning other gatherings in cities across the state.
“We want it to grow and engender this idea of a city-wide thing, where it becomes like a Houston Art Week, the premier Texas art week,” Slenske says. “There’s no limit to what you can do in Houston.”
