2023 Programming includes new artist projects and performances, as well as panel discussions as part of the Untitled Art Podcast, among others.
Untitled Art is pleased to announce a program of curated Special Projects, performances, podcast conversations, and events for its 2023 edition. This year marks the fair’s most international presentation to date, focusing on collaboration across the art community. Untitled Art’s programming is part of a curatorial platform spearheaded by Artistic Director Omar López-Chahoud and Director of Development and Curatorial Affairs Clara Andrade Pereira in support of the wider arts ecosystem – both globally and locally in Miami. Selected artists, galleries, and non-profits will highlight topics from gender and diversity, digital initiatives, historical positions, and celebrate new and underrepresented voices, in line with this year’s curatorial themes of “Gender Equality in the Arts” and “Curating in the Digital Age”.
Special Projects, presented throughout the fair, call attention to key issues and new artistic voices. This newly designed sector is an opportunity for exhibitors and artists to expand their curatorial presentation in Miami and connect with a wider audience. Highlights this year include:
bitforms (New York, NY) is bringing a selection of Manfred Mohr’s earliest computer-generated plotter drawings (circa 1970) showcasing his first implementation of the hypercube through his algorithmic computer-generated 16mm film, Cubic Limit (1973-74). This special project distinguishes Mohr’s pioneering use of algorithms decades before it became a tool of contemporary art.
Henrik Godsk will construct an interactive sculpture titled Carousel 1884 (2023), a modernist reworking of a family heirloom. The work will be clad with both inward- and outward- facing portraits that refer to family lore in lieu of the expected vibrant panels of a fair ride. Presented by Vigo (London, United Kingdom), this work is a continuation of Godsk’s practice that infuses folkloric and high art, drawing from his heritage as a seventh-generation traveler growing up in fun fairs in Denmark.
Gerd Leufert’s NENIAS (1965-1985/2023) is a wall installation, presented by Henrique Faria Gallery (New York, NY). The term “nenias” was used by the artist since the early 1960s to identify a series of figures he developed. The conventional meaning of the term comes from music, referring to certain old songs or lamentations reserved for funeral rites. These forms, now adapted for new space and spectator, fuse together ancestral cosmogonies with contemporary figures able to transcend the diverse currents of anthropological and indigenist thought.
For Freedoms has commissioned new signed and numbered and hand-embellished limited edition prints by April Bey, Petra Cortright, Christine Sun Kim, and Hana Ward that will be displayed in the podcast lounge and available online on the For Freedoms website. In tandem, the artist-led organization will present a panel discussion titled Imagining a Culture of Listening, Healing, Awakening, and Justice that will explore the role of artists in shaping society and politics on December 5.
Ediciones Marea, in collaboration with the Pedro Reyes Studio, have produced five works from the repertoire of the late Luis Ortiz Monasterio (1906-1990), with the support of the artist’s family. This project, consisting of an exceptional collection of limited-edition pieces, marks the first-ever presentation of these works by Ortiz Monasterio's outside of Mexico.
Epidermic Scapes (1977-2022) by Vera Chaves Barcellos showcases a series of images of the artist’s and other people’s skin enlarged to such an extent that their indexical function is lost as they take on a more abstract appearance, presented by Zielinsky (Barcelona, Spain / São Paulo, Brazil). The artist’s intention is to expand the images to such an extent that they could be displayed on the floor or wall in a monumental way and as if they were terrestrial landscapes.
El Kilómetro (San Juan, Puerto Rico) presents Awilda Sterling-Duprey’s Blindfolded (2020-present), part of her series of dance drawings where the artist blindfolds herself to make abstract marks on wall-mounted paper in response to salsa and/or jazz improvisations. Blindfolded was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial where the artist created the work via performance within the installation itself. Similarly, as part of this year’s Special Projects sector, this iteration of the series will be activated during the artist’s performance at 11:30am on Wednesday, December 6th.
YI GALLERY (Brooklyn, NY) spotlights Open Sky, Mirage (2023), an ongoing exploration by Karian Amaya into the transformations of matter and its effects when placed in varying geographical contexts. Inspired by the aesthetics of exploitation and extraction of natural resources, this presentation seeks to encapsulate the passage of time, serving as both a record and memory of a place. As the minerals in the copper pools change and evaporate, they create distinct pools, each capturing a unique visual representation of time.
Kelley Johnson Studio will present a functional sculpture within this year’s Untitled Art Podcast Lounge. In conjunction with the awarded Rado Production Prize sculpture in the fair’s interstitial space, Fleeting Fragments of Time 15/45 (2023) features an interplay of light over the chrome surfaces, so that participants interactions will continuously reshape the work’s interpretation.
Ten live performances will also accompany the fair, continuing Untitled Art’s support of non-commercial genres and multi-disciplinary art practices. Highlights include New York Performance NOW! a series of performances by artists Ms. z tye, Alexa West, and Mayfield Brooks during the VIP and Press Preview, curated by Kyla Gordon, and presented by the New York City-based artist-run initiative 99 Canal; an audience-activated performance by Trueson Daugherty in which the artist serves slices of a symbolic mass wedding cake meticulously adorned with over 100 custom-made bride and groom figurines, presented by curator and multidisciplinary artist, Kalup Linzy and with the support of The Tulsa Artist Fellowship; supported by Gallery Meessen De Clercq (Brussels, Belgium) and developed in collaboration with the Ringling College of Art and Design faculty and students, Lieven De Boeck’s ongoing performance parade, What’s going on?, celebrates mixed gender and queer identity, and explores art as an interactive experience that can only happen through personal activation (a concept tied to the work of Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica); Software for People v2 by Erick Antonio Benitez presented by Selenas Mountain (New York, NY) and supported by Y.E.S. Contemporary connects the physical, mystical, and digital through dance; presented by Negrón Pizzaro (San Juan, Puerto Rico), David Correa’s Death in Dade is an ongoing series of performances depicting desperation, resentment, and sorrow of the Latin laborer; presented by Miami-based non-profit cultural partner Locust Projects, an audiovisual performance and installation by Nicki Duval and Robbie Trocchia titled bout (2023) deconstructs competitive boxing and the work of American realist painter George Bellows, breaking down the boundaries between arts and athletics, and challenging gender stereotypes through boxing and queerness; and GeoVanna Gonzalez will present an iteration of her performance installation, PLAY, LAY, AYE: ACT 6, presented by Commissioner, in partnership with Chief.
The Untitled Art Podcast returns for its fourth year to support the fair’s 2023 Exhibitors within a dialogue showcasing the wider art ecosystem. Over 20 conversations are scheduled on-site during the fair, with participation of figures within each facet of the art community: including renowned artists Antonio Andrews, Ashanti Chaplin, Jeffrey Meris, Alyssa Klauer, Kalup Linzy, Sharif Bay (presented by albertz benda (New York, NY / Los Angeles, CA)), Manfred Mohr (presented by bitforms (New York, NY)), LaKela Brown, and Kacy Jung (presented by Jonathan Carver Moore (San Francisco, CA)); and influential art professionals and institutional curators Natasha Becker, curator for the Arts of Africa at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; NXTHVN’s Assistant Director of Exhibitions and Programs, Marissa Del Toro; Rachel Delphia, the Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator at Carnegie Museum of Art; Kate Green, Ph.D., Chief Curator & Nancy E. Meinig, Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Philbrook Museum of Art; and Carolyn Sickles, Executive Director of Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Highlights in this sector include two Spanish speaking panels, one of which features DeMartini Family Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Untitled Art Ambassador Marcela Guerrero in a discussion with Latin American and Caribbean galleries from the Nest sector; a dialogue on the market for women artists by Casey Lesser, Director of Content of Artsy, and Julia Halperin, Cofounder of the Burns Halperin Report; a conversation supported by Vortic between the platform’s founder, Oliver Miro and Untitled Art Ambassador and Dallas-based art advisor, Adam Green; Curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas and Artistic Director Neville Wakefield to discuss Programming Partner Desert X 2025's themes and socio-cultural concerns with Zoe Lukov, reflecting on past projects, desert conditions, gender equality, and the impact of technology on art and daily life in the Coachella Valley; a panel by Atlantic World Art Fair, an annual online experience featuring contemporary art makers in the Caribbean, the Atlantic Islands and the region's wider diasporas; and a series of panels covering the art market for female artists, the impacts of new technologies, and new collecting models hosted by Untitled Art’s Education and Programming Partner Sotheby’s.