UNTITLED ART, HOUSTON Brings Eclectic Mix of Art on October 2-4

UNTITLED ART, HOUSTON ANNOUNCES CITYWIDE PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS FOR SECOND EDITION WITH VIP PREVIEW, OCTOBER 1

Special Projects, Artist Collaborations, and Panel Discussions for the Untitled Podcast underscore Houston’s expanding presence in the contemporary art landscape 

Untitled Art, Houston, returns in 2026 with an expanded roster of 99 galleries from 20 countries and territories.

This year’s edition presents Special Projects, prizes, live podcast panels, and community partnerships that speak to Houston’s increasingly vital role in contemporary art. Founder Jeffrey Lawson, Houston Director Michael Slenske, and Executive Director Clara Andrade continue to shape a curatorial approach rooted in close dialogue with the local arts community, extending the fair’s mission to champion innovation, accessibility, and inclusivity in contemporary art. 

The fair will take place October 2-4, 2026, at the George R. Brown Convention Center with a VIP and Press Preview on October 1.

On the show floor, 11 Special Projects offer artists, galleries, and institutional partners the opportunity to realize site-specific work alongside the fair’s booth exhibitors.  

Highlights include:  

–Dave Muller’s Record Pavilion 2.0 (2026), presented by Meliksetian | Briggs and the Landing. First staged in Los Angeles in 2022, this fully operational, walk-in record store is assembled from Muller’s own collection, complete with sound system, paintings and ephemera.  

–Erina Libertad‘s Duet (2026), with Main sector exhibitor Hannah Sloan, transforms a stretch of the fair into an opportunity for an impromptu dance between strangers.  

–Josh Callaghan’s Big Rig (2026) exhibited by Main sector exhibitor Night Gallery, a new main sector gallery, recasts wheelchairs as icons of American mobility while a series of densely layered, kaleidoscopic paintings inspired by King Nobuyoshi Godwin’s synaesthesia are on display in The Artist Is Having a Good Day (2026) from SAGE Studio & Gallery. 

Houston is the connective tissue of this year’s programming:

-The Floyd Newsum Jr. Art Estate expands The Journey Never Ends, a 2005 painting by the late artist, with a living “artchive” tracing his four-decade influence on generations of Houstonians. The installation unfolds over three acts, including a live video feed, Untitled Voyage (2026), connecting a traveling iteration of the project with its presentation at the fair.  

-Reconstructing historical LGBTQIA+ spaces and sites of the queer community in Houston, Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin‘s Town Meeting 1978–2028 (2026) is a monumental drawing and performance lecture exhibited by Main exhibitor McClain Gallery.  

–Reynier Leyva Novo‘s Blue Bones (2026), a public art project presented by PAC Public, unfolds through a community archive in the neighborhood of the Third Ward. For the presentation, Novo covers images and objects in blue paint, shifting their function to a material evidence of the survival, loss, and urban change in the Third Ward.  

-In The Iconic Portrait Strand (Houston), an on-going series of portraits from 2008-2026, Houston-based artist Nestor Topchy renders egg-tempera and gold-leaf portraits of Houstonians in the tradition of Byzantine icons. Topchy’s presentation, with Josh Pazda Hiram Butler, will grow during the run of the fair through live portrait sittings.  

–Estefania Puerta‘s The Crowd (2026) is a reflective figurative sculpture built from cast forms and photographs taken in Rome and Colombia, and presented by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston as part of the inaugural CAMH Commission Prize awarded to the artist at the inaugural edition of the fair.  

-Houston-based artist JooYoung Choi’s sculptural installation, WE CAN MAKE IT IF WE TRY, The Journey of Poundcake Man and Emma Poundcake Girl (2024), showcased by Inman Gallery, explores themes of identity, belonging, trauma, and resilience inspired by the artist’s childhood memories.  

-Houston legend Mark Flood stages Daily Flood (2026), a lived-in artist’s studio/private viewing room, with paintings stacked on the floor, leaned against walls, and set among furniture and found objects. 

 
The Houston Artist Market returns for its second year:

Curated again by Adam Marnie, editor of F Magazine and a Nest exhibitor at the fair, the initiative reflects Untitled Art’s broader commitment to foster regional cultural ecosystems, providing a retail-style platform alongside the fair’s international roster. This year’s edition brings together 12 presentations, including two collaborative booths. 
 
“I’m really excited to be bringing the Artist Market back to Untitled Art, Houston for its second, expanded edition,” says Marnie, “For me, the real strength of the Artist Market is that it represents a vital collection of the artist-run organizations creating community and connection on the ground in Greater Houston and beyond.” 
 

VIP HIGHLIGHTS:

A cornerstone of its inaugural edition, Untitled Art, Houston’s dynamic six-day VIP program returns in 2026. Untitled Art’s six-day VIP program offers collectors, curators, and patrons unparalleled access to Houston’s cultural infrastructure and community. Highlights include studio visits with artists Trenton Doyle Hancock, JooYoung Choi, and Nestor Topchy; private collection tours with FreshArts founder Marita Fairbanks and local advisor Katharine Barthelme, both Founding Host Committee members, and Mara and Erick Calderon, founder of Art Blocks; visits to the PAC Art Residency with artist Teresa Serrano; a meditation at the Rothko Chapel; and open studios at the MFAH Core Residency Program and Rice University. Public programs with artists Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee at ARTECHOUSE and Rana Begum at the Ismaili Center round out the week. 

The VIP program will also include visits to exhibiting galleries, an evening at the James Turrell Skyspace in The Heights, and a screening and panel discussion at Rice University in partnership with the Houston Cinema Arts Festival with Lita Albuquerque about the film made of her seminal performance at the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern for the inaugural edition of the fair.  

MORE INFORMATION:

For more information, visit Untitled Art’s website or follow on Instagram and Facebook.

Photos courtesy of Untitled Art