As the old saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas. It was ironic, then, that the inaugural edition of Untitled Art, Houston was small—at least in comparison to the fair’s Miami Beach counterpart, which is roughly two times the size. Still, the 88 galleries who showed at the Houston fair made this event feel mighty, despite its size.
There was space for memorable installations by artists such as Mel Chin and Isabelle Brourman; equally memorable booths were located. And there were also noteworthy works dealing head-on with pressing political issues in a time when addressing topics like the healthcare crisis vis-à-vis the Luigi Mangione trials and immigration between the United States and Mexico can be risky for both artists and dealers.
Houston newcomers and locals alike from near and far, and there was an excitement among the attendees here that has been rare since the start of the Covid pandemic. Talk of a market downturn seemed not to deter visitors from drinking in the Southern hospitality and the daring selection of works in multiple mediums.
Despite the extravagance of the event, I was drawn to some of the fair’s quietest works. Here are a few that stood out.
Shuling Guo at Laura (The Gallery)
The ethereal glow of Chinese-born, Philadelphia-based artist Shuling Guo’s oil on linen paintings are inspired by her time living at sea and the birth of her daughter in 2022. One painting even seems to refer to the latter directly: a flame gives way to what looks either like a butterfly or a female reproductive system. These transcendent works recall mystical painters like Hilma af Klint and Agnes Pelton. The small scale of the works only adds to their intimacy and their otherworldliness.
Gillian Brett at Don’t Look Projects
At first glance, plants appear to grow out of the wall of this booth. Upon further inspection, however, one begins to notice that these plants are comprised of computer circuitry and wire cables. The work cleverly intertwines concerns about modern agriculture practices and climate change, showing how human reliance on technology has reshaped the natural world for the worse. Images of the night sky captured by the Hubble telescope also appear here on fractured LCD screens that disturb their beauty.
Jamal Cyrus at Inman Gallery
Drawing on the storied tradition of quilt-making within Black American culture, Jamal Cyrus layers pieces of denim jeans marked with phrases and symbols that speak to present-day experiences and concerns from the demarcation of one’s breathing to the hum of a song. Others hint at the joy and sorrow encapsulated in music, as they appear to have been turned into instruments ready to be played—however impractical they may be. Rhombus or Humming Song (2-5-1), 2025, for instance, is a small bronze, wood, and brass sculpture that has been turned into a tambourine.
Taisiia Cherkasova at Lazy Mike Gallery
The best laid plans can often go awry, and Lazy Mike Gallery found out the hard way. The gallery had planned to show a collaborative project by Taisiia Cherkasova, who has been corresponding with a childhood friend living in war-torn Ukraine who was drafted into the armed forces. The gallery had planned to show this exchange in the form of images skyscapes and landscapes, but the works got stuck in customs and did not make it to the fair in time. Instead, Cherkasova pivoted, creating related postcard-sized works to the originals she could not exhibit.
Verónica Gaona at Keijsers Koning
For these sculptures, Verónica Gaona salvaged metal from large Ford F150 trucks, causing all the scraps to look like crumbled pieces of paper when hung in the booth of Keijsers Koning. (Disclosure: I previously worked at the gallery when it was known as LMAK.) These cast-aside pieces of detritus were collected along the Rio Grande River and are here collaged with personal photographs of the artist’s family and friends. Mapping oneself and one’s family directly onto the surface of discarded trucks draws out issues related to migration between the United States and Mexico—a particularly haunting topic in Texas, given its location along the United States-Mexico border.