Houston, TX, September 8 — This September, Untitled Art is stepping outside the fair booth and going underground—literally—for a radical, site-specific collaboration between visionary Light and Space artist Lita Albuquerque and acclaimed dancer and choreographer Jasmine Albuquerque, staged in one of Houston’s most enigmatic, time-suspended spaces: Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern.
Organized by Untitled Art in collaboration with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, the 20-minute performance, The Sea is Within Me, unfolds within the Cistern’s cathedral-like reservoir—a space that feels less manmade than mythic. Designed for a highly limited audience, the performance will take place at various times on September 17 and 19, 2025, echoing like a ritual through the vast, reverberant chamber.
Lita Albuquerque will guide the audience on a journey into one’s inner self, bringing in simultaneous connection with the cosmos of which they are a part.
At the Cistern, the performance will activate the space using color, sound, and movement. The dance is performed and choreographed by Jasmine Albuquerque and is in dialogue with opera singer Carmina Escobar, whose voice pierces the silence of the Cistern as the Star Keeper who narrates and scores Najma’s movement.
The Sea Is Within Me is a new addition to the collaborative and performance-based works by Lita Albuquerque and Jasmine Albuquerque. It draws inspiration from the writings of Lita Albuquerque’s 2016 film 20/20: Accelerando, in which Jasmine performs as the Twenty-Fifth Century Female Astronaut, Najma, going through extreme physical and emotional trials in order to activate interstellar consciousness throughout the planet. The Sea is Within Me is a theatrical presentation of initiation into spiritual enlightenment.
Albuquerque’s performance is a special addition to the collaborative work they continue to do as mother and daughter. It is also a highlight of Untitled Art’s inaugural presentation in Houston, where Lita will also be featured in Michael Kohn Gallery’s booth.
Organized by Untitled Art and Buffalo Bayou Partnership with major support provided by Barry and Elizabeth Young, Elle Moody, Liz Anders (Liz Anders & Associates), Illa Gaunt (IG Art), Janet Hobby, Jereann Chaney,, Judy Tate, Katharine Barthelme, Kelley Scofield, Kirby Liu (Lovett Group), Leigh & Reggie Smith, Liana Schwaitzberg (MKG Art Management), Michael Mandola, Micheline Newall, Mitra Murthy, Sanford Dow, Sara Cain (Sara Cain Fine Art), Scott and Judy Nyquist, Shelley Marks Weathers, Silvia Salle, Suzanne Deal Booth, and Winnie Scheuer.
Project management and curatorial collaboration provided by Karen Farber and Michael Slenske. Production, lighting and sound design by Kelly O’Brien and Joseph Jaime of Fenris. Costumes by Cathy Cooper. Head pieces by LVDF.
About Lita Albuquerque
Since the early 1970s, Lita Albuquerque (born 1946, Santa Monica, CA, raised in Carthage, Tunisia and Paris, France) has created an expansive body of work, ranging from sculpture, poetry, painting and multi-media performance to ambitious site-specific ephemeral projects in remote locations around the globe. Often associated with the Light and Space and Land Art movements, Albuquerque has developed a unique visual and conceptual vocabulary using the earth, color, the body, motion and time to illuminate identity as part of the universal.
Albuquerque represented the United States at the Sixth International Cairo Biennale, where she was awarded the Biennale’s top prize. Albuquerque has also been the recipient of the National Science Foundation Artist Grant Program for the artwork, Stellar Axis: Antarctica, which culminated in the first and largest ephemeral artwork created on that continent. She has an upcoming solo exhibition slotted for 2026 at the Palm Springs Museum of Art. Recent major exhibitions include Lita Albuquerque: Earth Skin, Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Lita Albuquerque: The Washington Monument Project: The Red Pyramid, presented by Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach, Offscreen, Paris; Lita Albuquerque: Malibu Line, Los Angeles Nomadic Division; Crossing Over: Caltech and Visual Culture, 1920 - 2020, California Institute of Technology, Getty PST, Pasadena, CA; Lita Albuquerque: Early Works at Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach, Brussels; Groundswell: Women of Land Art at Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; Lita Albuquerque: Liquid Light presented by bardoLA at 59th La Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2022; Light & Space at Copenhagen Contemporary, Denmark; Desert X AlUla 2020, Saudi Arabia; the 2018 Art Safiental Biennial, Switzerland. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Trust, the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA and MOCA, among others.
About Jasmine Albuquerque
Jasmine Albuquerque is a choreographer, dancer, and instructor based in Los Angeles. She is the co-founder of WIFE and has performed with companies including Hysterica, Blue13 Bollywood, Collage Dance Theater, and Ryan Heffington’s Fingered. She has also provided movement direction for Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Jennifer Lopez.
Her performance highlights include Soft Sex, Istanbul Light Festival, TEDx SoCal, KTCHN, We Art The World, Frequency Festival, and collaborations with Jane’s Addiction and Hecuba. She has appeared at the Hammer Museum, Zebulon, the El Rey, the Wiltern, MOCA, The Ford, The Orpheum, and LACMA.
As a choreographer, she has worked with Katy Perry, Ivy Park, Puma x Balmain, St. Vincent, Devendra Banhart, Ry X, Sylvan Esso, Cameron Avery, Monica Dogra, Carlie Hanson, and more. She has danced in music videos for Beck, Laura Marling, The Weeknd, Miguel, Rodrigo Amarante, Lawrence Rothman, Verve Records, Fitz & The Tantrums, MIKA, Jessica Tonder, and Morcheeba.
Albuquerque holds a degree in History from UCLA and trained in contemporary dance at The Edge Performing Arts Center in Budapest, Hungary. She has been teaching dance for nearly two decades in Los Angeles, Copenhagen, and Mexico.
About Carmina Escobar
Carmina Escobar (Mexico City, 1981) is a Los Angeles–based extreme vocalist, improviser, and intermedia artist whose work explores the voice as a site of ritual, disruption, and transformation. Rooted in the experience of migration and liminality, her practice challenges conventional boundaries of musicality, gender, race, queerness, and language. She has performed and exhibited internationally at venues including The Whitney Museum, The Kitchen, REDCAT, The Broad, CTM Festival, and Borealis, and held residencies at MacDowell, Chinati, Montalvo, and Bemis, among others. Her large-scale works—such as FIESTA PERPETUA!, PURA ENTRAÑA, and Bajo la Sombra del Sol—merge installation, film, and experimental sound. Escobar is co-founder of LIMINAR and HOWL SPACE, co-director of Boss Witch Productions, and a recipient of awards from FCA, NALAC, NPN, and New Music USA.
About Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern
The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is a former drinking water reservoir built in 1926 for the City of Houston. The nonprofit Buffalo Bayou Partnership restored and repurposed this infrastructural relic into a magnificent public space for tours, performances, and art installations including works by artists including Magdalena Fernández, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Anri Sala, and Rachel Rossin.
About Untitled Art
About Untitled Art Founded in 2012, Untitled Art is a leading contemporary art fair held annually in December on the sands of Miami Beach and, starting in September 2025 in Downtown Houston. Shaped by new curatorial voices and themes, each edition of Untitled Art addresses urgent cultural issues through dynamic programming and intentional design, and is responsive to the evolving needs of artists, galleries, collectors, and the broader art landscape.
Untitled Art serves as a curatorial platform for discovering contemporary art, spotlighting both emerging and established voices. Exhibitors are invited based on the strength of their programs and artistic vision, under the leadership of Founder Jeffrey Lawson, Executive Director Clara Andrade, and Houston Director Michael Slenske.
Through its Nest sector, an initiative designed to reduce traditional barriers to entry, Untitled Art provides vital support to new talent, emerging galleries, and nonprofit organizations. As the first fair to launch an online edition, Untitled Art remains at the forefront of technological innovation, expanding access to collecting contemporary art and championing a more inclusive and responsible culture by amplifying diverse voices within the contemporary art market, platforming artists and galleries from underrepresented backgrounds and regions.
Gallery presentations are complemented by creative programming that supports the broader arts ecosystem – through rotating guest curators, live performances, special projects, a robust talks and podcast series, as well as the advancement of arts criticism with the online platform Untitled Edit. The fair also hosts year-round events in cities around the world.
With each fair, Untitled Art celebrates the art scenes in which it operates through continued engagement and cultural partnerships with local galleries, artists, museums, nonprofits, and other community organizations to champion regional voices and support long-term growth.
Untitled Art is committed to innovation to respond to the needs of artists, art professionals, galleries, and collectors, continuously adapting its architectural design and operating model to reshape the role of art fairs in an ever-evolving art landscape. To reduce its environmental impact, Untitled Art has joined the Gallery Climate Coalition and works to ensure zero environmental impact around each edition.
In 2025, Untitled Art, Houston will debut from September 19 to September 21 (VIP and Press Preview September 18). The 14th edition of Untitled Art, Miami Beach will take place from December 3 to December 7 (VIP and Press Preview December 2).