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Untitled officially opens Miami Art Week, 2022 and does so as usual on the strip of beach between Ocean Drive and 12th Street.
The eleventh edition of the fair, curated by artistic director Omar López-Chahoud, is as always in support of the broader art ecosystem, both globally and locally, in Miami, and to celebrate the fair’s deep network of collaboration in the best way possible, Untitled has established its first Ambassadors committee, composed of influential people and familiar faces in the art world with a focus on the Miami entourage.
Among the new features of the 2022 edition, Untitled expanded the sessions related to the Special Projects and Monuments sections counting the participation of 140 galleries and art spaces from 31 countries
For the Monuments section, a number of works open to the public and located west of the Miami Beach sand dunes were presented. Among the works is “Pathway Beyond Time” by artist Rachel Gerrard that uses nature as a medium.
Also, in addition to presenting for the second year in a row the Nest section that fosters emerging artists and galleries, starting this year, Untitled will select an annual gallery to exhibit the work of an older or deceased artist whose practice remains relevant to contemporary art. This year’s featured artists are Galerie Christian Lethert of Cologne, Germany, which presented 82-year-old German painter and sculptor, Imi Knoebel, known for contributing to and shaping 20th-century minimalist abstract art.
Welcoming visitors, in addition to the imposing black statue titled “Cocijo,” by Sabino Guiso, who was inspired by the great tradition of Mesoamerican art in its creation, is “Before the Wax Melts,” the performance via drone, by artist Whitney Lynn, which can be seen outside the marquee. The first in a series of events in the upcoming Special Projects series that will also feature Studio Lenca, Fountainhead’s current artist in residence and exhibited at Gallery Red in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Studio Lenca was recently selected by artist Tracy Emin for one of 12 professional studios in the new TKE Studios complex. For Untitled, Studio Lenca also created the project:” Ni de aquí, ni de allá” (Not from here, not from there), presented by Y.ES Contemporary, an immersive sculptural installation of 20 life-size figures in wood painted in Studio Lenca’s signature style.
This year’s edition, in addition to investigating the ways in which art galleries are increasingly evolving and interconnecting with alternative art disciplines, ranged from new media to historical presentations to the inclusion of new trends in research-based abstraction, about which Untitled Art director and curator Omar López-Chahoud said,” As an art fair, it is necessary to think ahead of future trends in the art world.”
Curious and varied are the themes and subjects covered by the artists on display. Among them are those by Serbian painter Alexandar Todorovic for Dihoria Gallery. Todorovic creates politically engaged artworks that address some of the most pressing and troubling issues of our time, reinterpreting religious icons from a pop perspective in order to analyze the concept of evil, which the artist approaches from different angles in an attempt to understand its origins and ramifications.
Ethiopian-born artist Tewodros Hagos, with his striking and poignant portraiture, addresses the issues of immigration, voyeurism, and how humanity has become desensitized to depictions of misery. Awarded the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France by the French Minister of Culture and Communication, Hagos invites viewers to engage with the humanity of migrants on a deeper level than the media’s brutalized portrayals and state-altering rhetoric.
Georgia Dimock uses figurative painting to ask questions about identity and technology. From the combination of digital and analog modes she creates images in which flat passages are an indication of the digital origin of her painting.
The rediscovery of figurative painting is gaining strength and is a tangible fact amplified at major art fairs such as Untitled. Artists express themselves with a multitude of forms and styles that vary subject to subject, from one personal experience to another. For Nigatu Tsehay, the human body is a reflective prism in which each individual seems to exist through reflection, association with others and objects that end up symbolizing or signifying various feelings depending on the stories shared.
For Harry Puro, on the other hand, figures try to keep themselves balanced between sketches, plans and free improvisation, constantly occupying the middle ground between the figurative and the abstract.
For Yo Yo Lander, figurative art is a fascinating work of collage in which the beauty, strength and vulnerability of her subjects are highlighted by a particular compositional process: starting from a set of photographic shots, she creates singular compositions in which, by layering pieces of watercolor paper dyed over the canvas, she renders extraordinary multicolored body landscapes that highlight the volumes of bodies.
Ekene Emeka-Maduka, a young Nigerian-born artist, considers figurative art a personal matter with which to address issues of displacement and identity reconstruction. In her mostly self-representational works, the eyes of the subjects depicted look straight into the eyes of the viewer, with whom she establishes an intimate conversation.
Justin Liam O’Brien’s figurative paintings, on the other hand, portray social interactions that emphasize physical touches, evoking feelings of loneliness and boredom. His subjects, predominantly male that seem static in the idyllic setting and in which softly contoured figures are composed in carefully crafted tableaux, resulting from the rich personal background spent between digital arts and 3D animation, draw from the personal experiences of queer millennials experiencing internalized feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and powerlessness.
Finally, for all those who will be able to access the VIP Lounge, Untitled Art Fair, has set up special installations and group exhibitions, created in collaboration with BEVERLY’S: the now iconic artist- founded and run exhibition and service industry platform founded in 2012 in the Lower East Side / Chinatown neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. Among the works on display in the VIP lounge are Angela Fraleight’s inetersting works for Sean Norton, including, the work, “We are in Time for New Suns” .
(on the title, a detail of, Fragile 2 by Tewodros Hagos, 2022. Acrilyc on canvas, 140 x 120 cm)
