Houstonia’s The Must List tells you about something going on in Houston that you absolutely cannot miss.

Untitled Art held its first event in 2012. A curated convergence of international artists and gallerists gathered on the shore of Miami Beach, where they have gathered each year since to show their latest works. San Francisco subsequently held its first Untitled in January 2020, though COVID preempted plans for future fairs. And then, Houston happened. Or, rather, the organizers came to realize that they had in Space City a truly fertile creative environment.

From September 19 through 21, the George R. Brown Convention Center will host the first-ever Houston-based Untitled fair, featuring 88 arts organizations hailing from five different continents, with 11 from the city itself.

“There’s just expansion everywhere. There [are] all these young galleries that are doing stuff in town,” says Michael Slenske, director of Untitled Art, Houston. Among the inaugural selections are newcomers like Laura, the appointment-only contemporary art space in the Heights, and Seven Sisters, whose concept supports arts and crafts inspired by the Pleiades star cluster. On the other end of the local art history spectrum is Moody Gallery, now celebrating its 50th year in business.

Along with fair founder Jeff Lawson, Slenske has been visiting the city on what he calls the “due diligence tour.” For three and a half years, they’ve met with local curators and artists to discuss the scene, though Slenske was already familiar with some of the major players. He first came to Houston about 15 years ago, for a wedding. A local friend in the PR business, Stuart Rosenberg, introduced him to the Menil, Rothko Chapel, Hamilton Shirts, and various art galleries, some of which are still around.

“I saw how broad and deep the cultural infrastructure of the city was,” says Slenske, who would continue to return while researching and writing for W and Architectural Digest. “…And I just kept coming back, mainly to see friends and see what else was happening there. I’d always thought about doing some exhibitions.”

Slenske suggested Houston to Lawson, who similarly had his eye on the city. The two believed an international showcase deserves a home base familiar with what it means to be global in the first place. “We always wanted not to come in from the outside and just plant a flag. We want to work with everyone,” Slenske says. “That’s why we’re working with so many Texas galleries, because it’s an international art fair going on, but radiating from the fair, it should be local, regional, national, international, going out… This [is] sort of what the energy is.”

Upper Kirby’s McClain Gallery is returning as one of the local organizations featured at Untitled’s Houston debut, having first attended the Miami Beach show in 2019. They’ll be highlighting selected works from three painters they represent—John Alexander, the late Dorothy Hood, and Bruna Massadas. “It’s amazing that all of these galleries will have a link to the people who live here in Houston, both for their artists and for their collectors,” says McClain codirector Hélène Schlumberger. “But I think for Houston, the hope is that it’ll pull a lot of people who don’t usually come to Houston and bring awareness to the things that are going on here.”

From a gallerist’s perspective, she also hopes Untitled brings in both new clients and new connections with others in the art industry. It’s a sentiment shared by Basket Books and Art owner Laura Hughes. In partnership with the Tulsa Art Fellowship, the combination gallery and bookshop will present dioramas by local multimedia artist Perata Bradley and works by Oklahoma-based, Ethiopian photographer Eyakem Gulilat. Alongside other Houston vendors like FLATS, Jardín, and Reeves Art + Design, Hughes and her partner in business and life, Edwin Smalling, will also have a booth at Untitled’s first arts market, where they’ll sell books on local artists and art history. “What we want to do as a bookstore as well as an art space is to function as a portal between what’s happening in Houston and beyond Houston, and to be in community, in dialogue, and in communication with the art scene beyond Houston,” Hughes says. “We’re excited to connect in that way.”

Slenske also envisions an expansion for Untitled Art, Houston—that it could eventually evolve into a weeklong affair similar to Miami Art Week. Such a move would benefit local hotels, restaurants, and transportation services, but Hughes wonders if the sprawl and the sheer depth and breadth of the local art scene can be contained in the span of just seven days. “How do you reach and represent Houston arts, in all of its arts communities, plural, in all of its glory?” she says. “That would be the biggest challenge.”

Still, Hughes loves the possibility because she champions the local art scene and any opportunity to promote it. So does Schlumberger, who believes September—a month when the weather is finally agreeable and arts organizations launch their fall exhibitions and seasons—would be an ideal time to host a potential Houston Art Week. The communal benefits would be that of a weekend, multiplied.

“Houston is an amazing place,” Schlumberger says. “…[An art week] definitely seems like something that could happen. So I look forward to seeing how everything develops, stemming from organizing this art fair.”