Art Fairs
The Untitled Art Fair Hires a Gallery Veteran to Lead the Upstart Franchise
Manuela Mozo established Simon Lee's first New York outpost.
Manuela Mozo established Simon Lee's first New York outpost.
Henri Neuendorf ShareShare This Article
Five years after its inaugural edition, Untitled art fair has appointed Manuela Mozo as director. Mozo has worked at Simon Lee since 2013 and established the gallery’s New York outpost, which opened earlier this year. Before that, she worked as a director at both Metro Pictures and Skarstedt Gallery.
Mozo’s appointment points to the steady expansion of Untitled, which launched as an upstart satellite fair inside a massive beachfront tent in 2012. Since then, it has established itself as one of a small handful of must-see fairs during Art Basel Miami Beach week.
In January, Untitled held its inaugural West Coast edition in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood. The franchise has previously been managed by founder Jeff Lawson with artistic direction from curatorial advisors (between March 2014 and March 2015, the fair’s operations were also managed by Carmen Ferreyra).
Under the new organizational structure, Lawson will focus more on operations, management, and strategy in collaboration with Mozo. Speaking to artnet News, Lawson explained that as the company has grown, it became necessary to restructure to keep up with the increased administrative and operational burden. He said he will remain deeply involved in the running of the fair.
Describing itself as a “architecturally designed curated fair,” Untitled differentiates itself by appointing a panel of curators to select its participants, rather than the industry-standard committee of fellow dealers.
The longtime artistic director of Untitled Miami Beach, Omar López-Chahoud, will carry on his duties until December and will then take up a role as a curatorial advisor. The current curatorial advisors, Christophe Boutin and Mélanie Scarciglia, will continue to work closely with Untitled and its restructured team.