Since its launch in 2012, Untitled Art has aimed to be a different kind of art fair. It maintains its distinctive approach by inviting curators to play an active role in selecting gallery presentations and special projects, and always exploring new ways to connect audiences with contemporary art—from live performances and podcasts to this very publishing platform, Untitled Edit. The organization continues to evolve while staying true to its original spirit of collaboration, experimentation, and support of writers.

In anticipation of the 2025 Miami Beach edition, I sat down with three artists whose early experiences with Untitled Art left lasting marks on their practice: Edra Soto, Emma Webster, and Derrick Adams. Together, we reflected on how those first encounters helped shape their work, and the paths their careers have taken since.

– Melissa Joseph, artist

Edra Soto

Puerto Rican-born, Chicago-based artist Edra Soto’s art-fair debut came through Luis De Jesus Los Angeles’ presentation at Untitled Art, Miami Beach in 2018. “It was the first architectural intervention that I made integrating viewfinders,” Soto recalled about the installation, which transformed the gallery's booth facade with her signature small peepholes, offering glimpses into archival photographs tied to her heritage. “It was a simple representation of columns,” she added. But the minimalist set-up she created both echoed vernacular architecture and invited viewers into a layered dialogue about cultural identity and place. Five years later, Soto was back at Untitled Art with new artworks presented by Morgan Lehman, in conversation with pieces by Wendy Small.

Since then, Soto has steadily expanded her interventions, culminating in monumental public projects such as her 2023 Graft installation at Doris C. Freedman Plaza with Public Art Fund—where she reimagined her childhood “casita” within the urban landscape, foregrounding the visibility of Puerto Rican and Latinx communities. “My intention at Central Park was to make residential and vernacular architecture monumental. It was inspired by my casita, but also an architectural intervention,” she explained. “That section of the park, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, functions as an exit and an entrance. People are constantly coming and going. And as a Puerto Rican and Latinx artist, I think about immigrants and migrants who are in the area making their living there every day. They're very visible, and I didn't want my work to mask that life surrounding the Plaza.”

Archival images can become so important, especially for immigrants; from family photo albums to neighborhood snapshots and imagery drawn from advertising, Soto’s archive remains central to her practice. Expanding on her heritage, Soto added: “I integrate the albums and pictures from my parents’ time with images from the neighborhood, and images from media like television and advertising. I started living in the U.S. when I was 29. Before that, I received a fellowship to live and work in Paris that really impacted my life and perspective of the world. If I didn’t leave Puerto Rico, it would have been difficult to notice the nuances that I understand now as colonial manipulation.”

In December, Morgan Lehman will present Soto’s work “los 4 vientos / in all directions,” as part of Untitled Art’s Special Projects section, curated by Allison Glenn, who previously collaborated with Soto on her Public Art Fund installation. Other upcoming projects include a new installation opening at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art on January 29, 2026, and ArteYUNQUE, a group show in the rainforest of Puerto Rico. “I’m super excited about that,” she tells me.

Emma Webster

The year after Soto’s debut at the fair, Emma Webster’s first presentation at Untitled Art – in a booth presented by Diane Rosenstein Gallery – marked a similar milestone. “I was a year out of Yale's MFA and the presentation marked a personal arrival,” the artist recalled. “It was the first time I had work in a fair. I remember the art handlers installing the booth and how excited they were about my paintings. There was one massive painting in particular that took all four of us to hang, but once it was up, everyone radiated a kind of excitement before it. It felt like something big was about to happen.”

Webster’s 2019 booth quickly became a crowd favorite. “We got a tremendous amount of wonderful press. Many visitors 'discovered' me at Untitled Art, and it sparked exhibition opportunities that blossomed during Covid. Above all, seeing my work in the context of my peers bolstered me; it made me feel as if I too had a place in the cannon, and that confidence continues to fuel my practice.”

Currently, Webster is focused on panoramic paintings, drawing inspiration from virtual dioramas. She is preparing for a major exhibition at Petzel Gallery in New York in May 2026 and a massive immersive exhibition with Jeffrey Deitch in Los Angeles in February 2027. In the interim, she finds moments of joy outside. “Now that I use a 3D scanner to source some of the foliage in my scenes, I find myself visiting botanical gardens and traipsing into the wilderness to ‘hunt’ trees or other facets I might borrow for inspiration,” Webster told me. “Painting distortions of nature inevitably makes me feel closer to the real deal.”

Webster is not likely to be disappointed by the sweeping ocean views awaiting her at this year’s Untitled Art, Miami Beach. Six years after her debut she tells me, “Miami is always fun.”

Derrick Adams

Reflecting on the fair, artist Derrick Adams told me: “Untitled Art has a very unique format that, as an artist, I enjoy going through because it's a little bit more minimal. When you walk into a fair as a creative person, you're constantly absorbing all of the visual imagery that's there.” This can be “chaotic” or “overwhelming,” Adams adds, and “sometimes flattens out the purpose or the idea of making art.” But not at Untitled Art. “When you're able to see artists in a more curated fashion, it feels more like walking through a conversation.”

It’s this curated approach that led Adams to consider a partnership between The Last Resort Artist Retreat, the artist residency he set up in Baltimore, and Untitled Art. “What I really like about Untitled Art is that they're always trying to figure out how to be really engaged with the art community in a non-transactional way that will be beneficial in the long run.” The conversation led to the creation of a prize which, Adams tells me, “aligns with an organization and an artist like myself who really believes in community and not as a substitute for the commercial world, but as an added element of the art practice.”

The prize, now in its third year, is awarded to an artist exhibiting at Untitled Art, Miami Beach. It embraces the concept of leisure for Black creatives, and covers travel expenses to The Last Resort Artist Retreat, accommodation in the haven created by Adams, and a $1,000 stipend for the recipient. Additionally, it offers access to arts and culture programming and networking opportunities. “We're still growing,” Adams commented. “I think about the property as being a space to invite artists and creatives to come and hang out. It’s much bigger than a residency; it is a retreat, and it has a publishing component with writers.”

At times like this, initiatives like his are particularly important. Artists need support more than they might have even a year or two ago. But “times like this have happened before,” Adams reminds me. “It will push to the limit who really is an artist and who really is making art because they need to make art, not because they're financially supported by the market, but as a creative person. These types of situations make us confront our creative process and whether it is really viable. I sell art, and I show in a major gallery, but if I was not in that position, I would still be productive as an artist making art with what I can afford. I would still use my creative muscle to feel confident in the way that creators must make in order for them to feel stable mentally and physically and spiritually.” Which is precisely why preserving and creating spaces of refuge matters.. “Doing these kinds of community projects makes a huge difference.”