As popular Miami Beach art fair UNTITLED prepares for its first San Francisco edition, scheduled for January 13–15, 2017, the fair made its first programming announcements today at a breakfast in New York.
UNTITLED San Francisco will take place at the historic Pier 70, which will be outfitted for the occasion by architectural firm Ogrydziak Prillinger Architects (OPA). This hearkens back to what UNTITLED founder Jeff Lawson sees as the fair’s founding principles of architecture and curation.
When the fair launched in Miami Beach in 2012, Lawson told journalists, his goal was to “create an environment that really showcased the art.” The new San Francisco edition, which has been three years in the making, has the same aim, but takes an entirely different approach with the site’s raw, industrial space. “They’re very, very different experiences,” Lawson noted.
Pier 70. Courtesy of Pier 70 Partners.
A major shipping site during both World Wars, Pier 70 was shuttered in the ’70s, and became part of the local underground art scene, attracting artists and musicians from the nearby Dogpatch and Potrero Hill neighborhoods. The Lab, a local platform for experimental art, is teaming with Oakland-based artist Constance Hockaday to pay homage to the underground performance spaces of that era.
The piece, titled Attention! We’ve moved, is a floating performance and exhibition space installed on-board a boat docked outside the fair. A telescope positioned at the pier will be aimed at the venue, encouraging visitors to venture out and experience the program of visual art, performance, and noise music, which will address the Bay Area’s issues with the ongoing displacement of artists and cultural spaces.
All These Darlings and Now Us. Courtesy of Southern Exposure.
The Lab is just one of over a dozen local institutions that have signed on to work with the fair, including the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco Cinematheque, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito.
UNTITLED Radio will be run out of an artist-designed bar from San Francisco’s Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, part of the California College of Arts, in the spirit of the institution’s Oscar Tuazon-designed Wattis Bar.
Elisa Cicinelli,Portrait of David Ireland with Dumbball (1998). Courtesy of the 500 Capp Street Foundation.
San Francisco’s 500 Capp Street, home of the late artist David Ireland, will recreate its polyurethane-varnished yellowed walls, at its booth at the fair, which will feature some of his never-before-seen works on paper.
Guests will be invited to participate in an artist’s workshop, making “Dumbballs”, round sculptural orbs Ireland would shape by tossing wet concrete from hand to hand for up to 14 to 20 hours.
The interior of David Ireland’s home at 500 Capp Street. Courtesy of the 500 Capp Street Foundation.
The fair will also bring back the trippy TOILETPAPER lounge, which was a hit at the 2015 edition of UNTITLED Miami Beach. Artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, creators of the bi-annual publication TOILETPAPER, will bring their quirky aesthetic to the immersive communal space.
The UNTITLED curatorial team of Omar López Chahoud, Christophe Boutin, and Melanie Scarciglia, and programming and development director Amanda Schmitt, will be joined in San Francisco by local curator Juana Berrío, serving as programming and development advisor.
UNTITLED Miami Beach TOILETPAPER Lounge in 2015. Courtesy of UNTITLED.
In addition to whetting the appetite for its new West Coast venture, UNTITLED also spoke about its upcoming Miami Beach outing. Among the expected highlights will be Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tomas Vu‘s RV TV Boards, a display of surfboards emblazoned with lyrics from the Beatles “Revolver” (released 50 years ago this year), as well as three boards featuring members of Russian art collective Pussy Riot that fair-goers can take down to the beach, and a shower stall where they can rinse out afterward.
“I usually go to Miami just to play golf—I stay away from the art fairs,” remarked Tiravanija, noting that the duo’s project was inspired by his first trip to the beach-side UNTITLED tent in 2015. He spoke highly of his collaborator, but remarked, “I don’t even think he can surf!”
“What are you talking about?” Vu interrupted. “I do know how to surf, I grew up in Vietnam taking care of surfboards for American GIs,” he added, noting that he considers this a personal project.
Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tomas Vu Model for RT TV Boards at UNTITLED, Miami Beach (2016). Courtesy of the artists and Nathalie Karg Gallery.
The fair will soon announce its complete list of San Francisco exhibitors, a roster that is expected to number between 40 and 50 galleries and feature different faces than the larger Miami Beach fair, which hit a record 128 dealers this year.
UNTITLED San Francisco will be on view at Pier 70, 420 22nd Street in San Francisco, January 13–15, 2017.