Miami Beach, FL. November 14, 2024 – Untitled Art, Miami Beach is pleased to unveil a program of curated Special Projects, performances, and panel discussions for its 2024 edition. This year’s programming aligns with the focus of “East Meets West,” further emphasizing a commitment to increasing diversity and representation across the contemporary art market.
The 13th edition’s curatorial programming is led by Executive Director Clara Andrade and Artistic Director-At-Large Omar López-Chahoud, with the participation of guest curators Kathy Huang, independent curator and Managing Director, Art Advisory and Special Projects at Jeffrey Deitch, New York, and Jungmin Cho, founder and director of art space WHITE NOISE, Seoul. The programming features artist-led projects, performances, and panel discussions, bringing together artists, galleries, non-profit organizations, and industry leaders to highlight the diverse cultural voices shaping the global art landscape today.
This year’s Special Projects sector is curated by Omar López-Chahoud and presented throughout the fair. Focusing on historical and emerging perspectives, projects include:
Vigo Gallery (London, United Kingdom) brings to the fair Pain Relief, 2016, by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi. Since 2016, El-Salahi has created this extraordinary body of drawings and canvases from the back of medicine packets and envelopes in the comfort of an armchair, refusing to let physical restriction from his sciatica, Parkinson’s and chronic back pain limit his production. This presentation constitutes a seminal event as the first time that El-Salahi’s Pain Relief canvases have been exhibited in the United States. Additionally, The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami will host a solo exhibition of the artist’s work in 2025.
El Apartamento (La Habana, Cuba / Madrid, Spain) presents Reynier Leyva Novo’s Federal Cleaning, 2024, a series of dust meticulously arranged on adhesive paper to create a visual archive of impermanence. The dust, collected from the surfaces of emblematic federal buildings and monuments such as the White House and the Washington Monument, becomes a powerful metaphor for the inevitable decay and transformation of even the most enduring institutions. The project, completed during Novo’s Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington, D.C., in May and June 2024, challenges the idea of enduring power, emphasizing that even the strongest symbols of authority are ultimately subject to the inexorable forces of time and transformation.
Cristin Tierney Gallery (New York, NY) presents Judy Pfaff’s El Patio, 1988, created during a pivotal decade in her career. In the 1980s, Pfaff received significant accolades, including a National Endowment for the Arts award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Known for pushing the boundaries of avant-garde practice, Pfaff continues to reinvent her distinctive visual language, incorporating unconventional combinations of materials and creating large-scale installations that transform their surroundings. El Patio exemplifies her approach, combining a vibrant palette, sweeping diagonal lines, and a playfully off-kilter sense of balance that invites exploration. She exhibited at prominent institutions such as The National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Whitney Biennials (1981 and 1987), Venice Biennale (1982), MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Rafael Ortiz Gallery (Seville, Madrid, Spain), presents Concrete and Spatial Views, merging the collective work by Equipo 57 (Córdoba, Spain, 1957- Bern, Switzerland, 1962) with the artist Monika Buch (Valencia, Spain, 1936). The overflowing power of Equipo 57's works and Monika Buch's delicacy of form and color interact with each other. The confrontation of these works creates a dynamic relationship between two important European artists who hold the key to geometry and concretism.
Presented by JUPITER (Miami, FL / New York, NY), Izhar Patkin’s 1990 sculpture, Palagonia, fluxes Bernini’s 1652 altarpiece marble depiction of St. Teresa at the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome with the 1749 grotesques by Francesco Ferdinando II Gravina at the Villa Palagonia in Sicily - a sight Goethe described as filled with “elements of madness,” and as a monstrous expression of the unconscious. Palagonia debuted at Holly Solomon Gallery in 1990 and has since been exhibited at Castello di Rivara, Turin, Italy, 1991, and MASS MoCA, 2014, among others.
hettler.tüllmann (Miami, FL / Berlin, Germany) presents two installations, Seating Installation, 2022–2024, and Nest Seating Installation, 2024, featuring handmade chairs that blend craftsmanship with design. Highlights include the Fred and Jacob chairs, created with Flechtwerk Berlin and named after a third-generation Berlin-based basket weaver, as well as the Puli chair, inspired by a Hungarian herding dog and the Shakers' philosophy of re-use. The Nest Seating Installation features six bespoke, basket-like seats designed in collaboration with People of the Sun, a Malawian social enterprise that supports artisans while preserving cultural heritage.
Presented by C O U N T Y (Palm Beach, FL), Wendy White’s Highs and Lows (Double Happiness), 2024 takes the form of a mobile with an index of visual archetypes: vector images of black rainbows, rain clouds with suspended drops, hearts shaped from chunky pixels, oversized rain droplets, and distorted peace signs. The title Highs and Lows (Double Happiness) alludes to an emotional duality – the “let downs” of childhood dreams versus the emotional maturity required to navigate adulthood. White is the recipient of the Teiger Mentorship in the Arts at Cornell University, a Painting Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a George Segal Painting Grant.
Ralph Iwamoto’s series Geometric Paintings, spanning from 1965 to 1975, adds historical depth to Hollis Taggart’s (New York, NY) presentation of a transoceanic dialogue. Iwamoto, who witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor as a teenager, created work that synthesized the geometric abstraction of Cubism, Surrealist motifs, and flat, planar characteristics of traditional Japanese art. While working as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art, Iwamoto formed close friendships with artists Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, and Dan Flavin, who would later become the core group of the Minimalism movement. Ralph Iwamoto has exhibited widely nationally and internationally, and his work is currently on view in the exhibition Home of the Tigers: McKinley High and Modern Art at the Honolulu Museum of Art through January 12, 2025.
Made of Matter: Diasporic Mediations on Ancestry and Futures is a collaborative project curated by Auttrianna Projects and re.riddle (Los Angeles, San Francisco, CA), exploring the poetics of materiality in the artistic practices of contemporary Asian diasporic artists Ashley Dequilla, Charlene Tan, Kongkee, and Kamran Samimi. Through a diverse array of multimedia, textiles, sculpture, video, and works on paper, these artists challenge visitors if they can reclaim cultural practices, transmute colonial legacies, and empower collective narratives of joy and pride, guiding us toward a more equitable future.
Transmitter (Brooklyn, NY) presents contain and mend, a group exhibition by artists Tra My Nguyen, Leila Seyedzadeh, Trần Thảo Miên, Shaheer Zazai, Defne Tutus, Duy Hoà and Z.T. Nguyễn. Drawing inspiration from postcolonial theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha to challenge traditional categories of “East” or “Asian,” and referencing the fluid nature of identity, the works on display will rotate over the course of the fair. Through textile-driven works that center the human body and its relationships to physical environments, the presentation embraces the excess material that evades neat dichotomies and dualisms implicit in the endless attempts to separate humanity from one another. All presenting artists hail from the Asian diaspora, highlighting recent works from emerging international artists that emphasize the instability of geographic, ethnic, and nationalist categories.
Atlantic Arthouse (Miami, FL / Bermuda) presents an installation by dach&zephir titled, In between rèpriz and konpozisyon: a place for Caribbean cultures and communities, to be produced during their artist residency at Fountainhead Residency in November 2024, supported by Atlantic Arthouse and La Station Culturelle. By combining textile, collage, and various art & design objects taking their roots in Caribbean tradition, the installation invites viewers to examine cross-fertilization of Caribbean culture, highlighting how Indian and Chinese communities that play a central role in contemporary Caribbean societies are often disregarded as a part of the region's cultural identity.
A series of six live performances will take place throughout the fair, reflecting the curatorial theme and continuing Untitled Art’s support of multi-disciplinary and non-commercial art practices:
In Dai Ying’s No Dust to be Wiped 亦无尘可拂, (2023), presented by Yiwei Gallery (Los Angeles, CA / Wuhan, China), the artist uses soil, water, and cultural symbols as mediums, transforming Eastern shamanistic ritualistic performance art to convey and highlight the rise of Eastern female energy and power through the artist's body movement as a mediator and portal. The performance advocates for equal and peaceful relationships between people and between humanity and the world, opposing war and any thoughts or actions that violate human rights.
In Raheleh Filsoofi’s Bite, 2021, presented by ZieherSmith (Nashville, TN), the artist engages with a ceramic plate crafted from Florida soil, where she first landed as an immigrant, and Tennessee soil, where she currently resides. In a ritual lasting 7-10 minutes, she carefully bites the ceramic plate, leaving a distinct imprint that symbolizes resilience and resistance within today's political landscape. This act critiques and reimagines the colonial narratives embedded in the clay, as Filsoofi—an artist, woman, and Middle Eastern immigrant—brings forth a new narrative that honors past histories while asserting a powerful contemporary presence.
Raheleh and Reza Filsoofi collaborate in The Hum of the Earth, 2024, also presented by ZieherSmith (Nashville, TN), exploring the intersections of language, identity, and heritage through poetry and music. Raheleh recites her poems in Farsi and English through the vessel, invoking its role as a transmitter of layered narratives, while Reza plays on the vessels, transforming them into resonant instruments. Together, they redefine the vessel as both a sanctuary and a voice amid today's complex global landscape. This 15-minute performance invites audiences into a shared experience that bridges linguistic and cultural divides, celebrating resilience and identity across borders.
Loni Johnson’s BOOMBOOMBOOM!!, 2024, presented by the fair’s programming partner Commissioner (Miami, FL), invites participants to a space of collective healing. Honoring the rich history of Black Miami, Johnson uses sound and movement as mark-making, illuminating a pathway for remembrance and connection. A procession begins inside the fair and culminates on our performance stage in an offering open to all visitors. Uplifting the communal practice of call and response, Johnson's work prompts a larger dialogue on visibility and Blackness.
The artist collective Tatlo (Sara Jimenez and Jade Yumang)’s Tropical Heat, 2024, presented by Asianish, conjures an imperceptible image revealed only through touch, through the heat of their bodies. Artists interact with fabric treated with thermochromic ink, a pigment that can only be seen when heated. The performance is inspired by the term ‘tropical gothic,’ coined by Filipino writer Nick Joaquin, which describes the layered complexities and sometimes contradictions of the Filipina/x/o self - an identity haunted by its colonial past and further complicated through the diaspora.
Chanel Matsunami Govreau’s Situational Awareness, 2024, presented by Asianish, involves the artist dragging sandals tied to cinderblocks from one empty space to another. The weighted movement and repetition mirror the burden of hyper-vigilance experienced by Asian femmes in New York City. The piece echoes both imagined and real-life precautions taken to avoid being pushed onto subway tracks—a haunting reality brought to light after the tragic death of Michelle Go, an Asian woman who was pushed to her death on a New York City subway platform in 2022. The artist confronts the anxiety that permeates the daily life of many Asian Americans and femmes living in urban environments, materializing collective trauma into a public ritual.
The Untitled Art Podcast returns for its fifth year, with conversations scheduled on-site. Featuring leaders across all areas of the art industry, including artists, exhibiting gallerists, curators, museum directors, journalists, and more, the panels explore a diverse range of subjects around broadening representation across the art industry and fostering engagement across multiple communities and the public. Highlights include:
ArtTable presents From Purchase to Patronage: Stewarding Your Growing Collection, a discussion on the roles of steward and patron that the collector assumes upon purchasing a work of art. This panel brings together experts from the insurance, shipping, legal, and curatorial fields to cover collectors' contractual, financial, and ethical responsibilities to the artists they work with, setting up all participants for success. With support from Private Client Select, SRI Fine Art Services, and Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
Organized by Guest Curator Jungmin Cho, An Overview of Current South Korean Art Markets: Commercial Galleries, Alternative Spaces, and Curatorship examines the effects of global interest in South Korea’s art scene on diverse players—including commercial galleries, alternative spaces, and curators—and how these shifts might shape the future of the South Korean art landscape in a global world. Moderated by Jungmin Cho, panelists include Suyoung Lee, G Gallery Curator; Inseon Kim, Space Willing N Dealing Director; and Jeppe Ugelvig, Independent Curator.
Untitled Edit: the Future of Art Criticism explores the future of art criticism and arts journalism. Moderated by Mary Louise Schumacher, Director of the Rabkin Foundation, panelists include 2023 Rabkin Prize winner Max Durón, Senior Reporter at ARTNews, as well as past contributors to Untitled Edit, the fair’s online editorial platform intended to support established art critics and the next generation of voices, including freelance writers Julie Baumgardner and Annabel Keenan, as well as Arimeta Diop, Editorial Assistant at Vanity Fair. With the support of the Rabkin Foundation, an artist-endowed charitable foundation created in 1999 to preserve and share the work of Leo Rabkin and administer grants to art critics.
Museums and Institutions Fostering Inclusivity brings together leading museum professionals on the evolving role of museums in promoting inclusivity and diversity within their spaces and programs, moderated by Carlie Porterfield, Associate Editor at The Art Newspaper, with panelists Deidre Guevara, Director of Learning and Engagement, San Diego Museum of Art, Nicole Dowd, Head of Programs, Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, and Patrick Charpenel, Director, El Museo del Barrio.
Rajiv Menon Contemporary presents I-POP: Encounters in Art and Fashion Between India and the West, a conversation between Rajiv Menon and India’s leading fashion designer Anamika Khanna, moderated by Iva Dixit, exploring how popular Indian aesthetics foster new conversations between “East” and “West.” While East Asia dominates the conversation on Asian pop art, Indian visuality, especially in textile and design, informs a new wave of popular and folk-driven aesthetics. As India navigates its rise as a cultural superpower, its visual culture increasingly shapes global ways of seeing.
AI and the role of Digital Art in Addressing Social, Political, and Environmental Issues brings together distinguished artists, curators, and thought leaders to examine how AI enables digital artists to create works that provoke thought and inspire change across social, political, and environmental contexts. Panelists Kate Vass, founder of Kate Vass Galerie, Adam Berninger, Founder and Director of TENDER, and artists Memo Akten, Kevin Abosch, Sasha Stiles, and Ivona Tau will discuss digital art’s unique power to raise awareness and shape public opinion on pressing global concerns, while also exploring the ethical considerations artists face when using AI to engage with sensitive topics.
The Miami Artist Census: Artists Harnessing Data for Grassroots Change, moderated by Heike Dempster with panelists Harmony Honig, Carrie Sieh, and misael soto, will address the history behind the Miami Art Census and how the project reflects Miami's artist community. The group will consider how data can be channeled to identify the needs of local artists and visualize strategies for positive change.
14 Nov 2024Untitled Art, Miami Beach Announces Programming for 13th Edition
