The 10 Best Booths at Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2023

On the shores of South Beach, Untitled Art, Miami Beach ushered in its 12th edition under clear blue skies, a blazing December sun, and a palpable sense of excitement. The breezy atmosphere on the VIP preview day welcomed a lively mix of local art lovers and international visitors dressed in chic beach attire. By afternoon, the aisles and booths were abuzz with animated conversations and excited guests.

Among the 163 booths, many featured group exhibitions that emphasized the importance of artists in dialogue. This approach delivered several remarkable booths across the fair, enabling guests to peruse works from both emerging and established artists.

This year, the fair’s allure was particularly pronounced for first-time exhibitors. Stella Chang, gallery director at Richard Koh Fine Art, and Kimberly Cunningham, director of global development at WHATIFTHEWORLD—both making their debuts at this year’s fair—reported praise from guests.

This acclaim underscores how Untitled Art has evolved into a pivotal platform for introducing fresh voices in the art world. Since 2012, when Jeff Lawson founded the fair, Untitled has grown into an integral event for Miami Art Week. The fair describes itself as the “most international fair” in the city, and its programming stands out year after year for its remarkable curation.

“Our programming is really important to us,” Lawson recently told Artsy. “The curated aspect of the fair is really important. The programming is really important, and I feel like we’ve really put together an extremely exciting fair for this year.”

Lawson’s vision for Untitled Art has been instrumental in shaping its identity. This is exemplified by the Nest program, which launched in 2021 to introduce emerging galleries to the fair ecosystem.

Here, we present our 10 favorite booths from Untitled Art, Miami Beach.

Booth C6

With works by Mia Chaplin

Mia Chaplin’s works, alive with motion, capture the ongoing struggle for autonomy and identity. These works, presented for the first time in the U.S. by Cape Town gallery WHATIFTHEWORLD, confront the disturbing reality of gender-based violence, which holds particular resonance in the artist’s home country of South Africa. Pulling the exhibition together is Chaplin’s 2023 triptych The Protected Circle, I, II, III. These three paintings depict feminine bodies naked and in motion—realized as monuments of strength and vulnerability.

“[The art is] playing with that tension of womanhood, both the fragility and the power,” said Kimberly Cunningham, director of global development at WHATIFTHEWORLD. “I think that’s really interesting for the year we’re in where there’s so much happening in the world. This humanness—these layered complexities of being a woman—is what makes these works so powerful.”

The gallery has Chaplin’s paintings priced between $13,500 and $48,000. Additionally, the booth features several sculptures, including Evasive and unknowable (2023), a hollow vessel made from cement, wood chips, adhesives, papier-mâché, and wire. Those pieces are listed between $6,000 and $20,000.

Booth B25

With works by Ana Teresa Barboza and Rafael Freyre

The brightly colored paintings of Ana Teresa Barboza and Rafael Freyre at Nunu Fine Art’s installation make this booth impossible to miss. Entitled “Tropical Station: A Common Habitat,” the presentation is an extension of an experimental housing prototype in Peru that was devised by the pair in 2019.

Informed by a four-year period spent on Peru’s northern coast, the exhibit integrates natural materials and Indigenous construction techniques to create a sustainable living space. The fair booth features structural elements of their eco-friendly habitat, such as bamboo columns and mud walls, as well as a solar-powered video that depicts the daily life of the artists. The work includes Bamboo Engraving (2023), a bamboo engraved with details of their experience, and Conchal (2023), comprising 31 pieces of ceramics made of Chulucanas clay. At the heart of the booth is the artists’ desire to retain the visibility of the idigenous culture of the inhabitants.

“[The artists] become thoroughly immersed in both the natural elements and the cultural elements,” said Jenny Goldman, director of Nunu Fine Art in New York. “It’s very important to [the artists] that these the people [around them], who are artisans, are not erased as they have been forever.”

As the most immersive booth at the fair, the entire installation is priced at $100,000. Individual works range from $8,000 to $20,000.

Booth A43

With works by Minjung Kim, Barbara Nicholls, Thomas Müller, Francesco Pessina, David Connearn, and Marissa Telleria

Known for its impressive selections of abstract art, London- and Brussels-based gallery Patrick Heide Contemporary Art presents an exceptional range of works that span conceptual and gestural pieces to political statements. Among them, Marissa Telleria Telleria’s Loud Silence (2023), crafted from blue thread and white felt sewn into looseleaf-lined paper, poignantly reflects Nicaraguan social protest. The artwork symbolizes the period when the blue and white flag was banned, and protesters resourcefully used school paper as a symbol of resistance.

Directly to the right of Telleria’s work is David Connearn’s 1000 Signata (2019), featuring 16 frames of aristo acrylic and rotring inks on paper, priced together at $35,000. This work takes the original drawing and manipulates its colors to play with the viewer’s perception of the image.

The works range from $7,000 for Barbara Nicholl’s Sip Fault No.4 (2018) and Sip Fault No.37 (2020), to $130,000 for Minjung Kim’s Grey Snow (2007).

Booth B26

With works by Radu Oreian, María Fragoso Jara, Mark Ryan Chariker, Landon Bailey Higgins, Jarrett Key, Jimmy Johnson, Robert Martin, Kate Meissner, Morgan Mandalay, Sarah Schlesinger, Nina Silverberg, and Aaron Zulpo

1969 Gallery makes a noteworthy—and truly memorable—appearance at this year’s fair. The New York gallery’s presentation showcases the full spectrum of its talent, offering a comprehensive view of the contemporary art scene as seen through the lens of one of Tribeca’s most prescient galleries. Highlights include Romanian artist Radu Oreian’s The touth that never was (2023), priced at $16,700; Kate Meissner’s Second Skin 2 (2023), priced at $8,700; and María Fragoso Jara’s Desahogarse (2022), priced at $8,700.

“Part of being a good gallerist is like being able to see into the future,” said Quang Bao, the gallery’s founder. “That’s the function that the gallerist plays in the life of an artist, especially since we’re an emerging gallery that focuses on emerging artists.”

Oreian’s piece The body electric (2023), a portrait of Walt Whitman, is a standout, showcasing the artist’s ability to blend various painting styles and materials to create a mesmerizing texture.

Booth C44

With works by vanessa german, Simon Buret, Caleb Kwarteng Prah, and Silemn Elkamel

Each of the four featured artists at Nil Gallery’s booth commands attention. The presentation includes two sculptures, yellow and BLUE BOY (The Body of Grief Makes Space and Light) (both 2023) from vanessa german, who uses found items to create intriguing mixed-media assemblages. They are priced at $65,000 and $60,000, respectively.

After these sculptures grab your attention, the larger artworks on the walls promise to retain it. On the left, Caleb Kwarteng Prah’s works grapple with the artist’s life and memory in Ghana. Of other day (2023), priced at €8,000 ($8,600), uses silkscreening to create a dialogue between his photographer and the work of well-known Ghanaian photographers. On the right, Silemn Elkamel’s Sober land (2023), priced at €20,000 ($21,700), hangs on the wall—a muted portrait of figures in a greenspace created by meticulous dot-making.

“[Elkamel’s work] is about his childhood, about nature, about the connection between humans and nature nowadays and how it’s something really important,” said Helene Viellard, communications manager at the gallery.

Booth C10

With works by Justin Lim

Justin Lim’s nostalgic still lifes showcased at Richard Koh Fine Art’s booth explore themes of longing and history. Lim’s art, inspired by the solitude of the pandemic, uses everyday objects to explore the interconnectedness and divisions within society, encouraging viewers to contemplate their place in an ever-evolving world. His paintings, such as the 2022 series “Tell me everything,” feature plastic stool materials that are commonly used in Southeast Asia.

“They were, I guess, my close friends during the lockdown, being alone in my studio and encountering them every day,” Lim told Artsy. “You can read them as a statement on hierarchy. Who sits on these chairs? Who sits at home, and who sits outside? This kind of privilege that comes with that.”

This thought-provoking exhibition has seen remarkable success with works priced between $5,000 and $28,000. Of the eight works on display, six were sold, and one was reserved by the end of the fair’s VIP day.

Booth A19

With works by Eva Nielsen and Marion Verboom

Grappling with their mutual fascination with Mexican architect Luis Barragán’s concept of “emotional architecture,” painter Eva Nielsen and sculptor Marion Verboom’s collaborative works focus on the organic aspects of architectural forms. THE PILL®’s booth facilitates a dialogue between mediums and narratives of modernity, redefining the boundaries of feminist storytelling through art.

“We had a show a few years ago at the gallery where the works were in dialogue, and we were very interested to reactualize this conversation between the two artists,” said Suela J. Cennet, director of THE PILL®.

The artists’ approaches to layering and composition reflect a shared understanding of memory and human emotionality. Despite working through different mediums, their works subtly acknowledge universally constructed emotional frameworks, reflecting on human creativity and connection. The booth features work like Nielsen’s Insula V (2023), a rare figurative painting from the artist resembling photographs with lens flare priced at $20,000, and Verboom’s Achronie 36 (2023), a towering totem-like sculpture made from plaster and resin and priced at $50,000.

Booth A23

With works by Beverly Acha, Jen Clay, Elisabeth Condon, Jessica Gispert, and Moira Holohan

Emerson Dorsch’s group exhibition emphasizes the transformative power of symbols in the 21st century. These works, resonant with feminist narratives and technological evolutions in art, honor a legacy of women artists while inviting guests to reflect on evolving dynamics of expression and communication.

Highlights include Jen Clay’s quilted representations of childhood hallucinations, such as i’ll swallow you whole (ca. 2023), priced at $6,000, and Beverly Acha’s green and blue abstract painting round and round (o la memoria, lighthouses and the tides) [vueltas (or memory, faritos y mareas)] (2021–23). This selection, showcasing the lineage and impact of women in art, reflects the gallery’s commitment to gender parity in artistic representation.

“Emerson Dorsch…has represented at least 50% women ever since I had a say in the matter,” said Tyler Emerson-Dorsch, the gallery’s co-founder. “I realized that I’ve never emphasized that explicitly, and the curatorial impetus at Untitled gave me the push. It is important to highlight that we believe and are investing in women artists. All of them are fantastic artists in their own right. They do not need to, and they should not need to, reflect on womanhood in their self-expression unless that is their choice. What Untitled’s curatorial theme made me do was to interrogate and articulate how, specifically, these themes played out in our program.”

Booth B2

With works by Richard Ayodeji Ikhide, Cindy Phenix, Emma Talbot, Tainan Cabral, and Saskia Colwell

Victoria Miro Projects is stepping out of the digital realm. Launched in 2022, the digital offshoot of Victoria Miro typically hosts virtual exhibitions featuring international artists. The gallery’s booth, immediately catching the eye with its vibrant figurative paintings, showcases artists like Emma Talbot and Richard Ayodeji Ikhide.

Highlights include Talbot’s Signs (2023), a phantasmagoric acrylic painting on silk, and Ikhide’s Children of the Forest (2023), a watercolor portrait of four figures staring outwards. Throughout, the artists all present paintings emerging from a related fascination with the fantastical, communicated through bright colors and harsh juxtapositions. The booth creates a cohesive and engaging visual experience for the visitors at Untitled as they enter the fair. By the end of the VIP day, works by Talbot, Ikhide, and Saskia Colwell had sold for prices in the range of £7,000 ($8,812) to £20,000 ($25,180).

Booth B28

With works by Marlena Kudlicka, Miler Lagos, Markus Linnenbrink, Daniel Canogar, Diana Fonseca, Inma Femenía, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Nacho Martín Silva

Positioned at the heart of the fair, Max Estrella’s booth offers one of the most dynamic selections of sculpture at the fair. Featuring artists such as Marlena Kudlicka, Miler Lagos, and Markus Linnenbrink, the booth showcases a diverse array of innovative and thought-provoking sculptures. A notable work is Kudlicka’s Shape hypothesis test TZ (2016), a piece that intricately depicts mathematical diagrams using thin steel rods—a blend of meticulous precision in art and math.