Between the grand opening of the gargantuan new SFMOMA, the emergence of a buzzing young arts district, and the recent arrival of mega-galleries Gagosian and Pace to the Bay Area, San Francisco is having a ‘super-major moment’, quipped LA gallerist Hannah Hoffman. Last Thursday, she and 54 other exhibitors launched the inaugural Untitled San Francisco, the latest addition to the art world’s growing calendar of global events.
The West Coast edition of the annual Miami Beach fair took place within the rusty, corrugated confines of a former warehouse on Pier 70, giving it a decidedly scrappier feel than the plush, red-carpet holdings of the city’s coinciding FOG Design+Art fair. Untitled certainly had blue-chip works to offer local and visiting power collectors, with galleries that, in Miami, would have featured at Art Basel.
Jill Magid's 'Roof Terrace with spout', 2015, is part of a body of work exploring the late Mexican architect Luis Barragán.
Hannah Hoffman Gallery brought works by Sam Falls and Barbara Kasten, while Galerie Perrotin’s spread included Elmgreen & Dragset, Sophie Calle, and Maurizio Cattelan. Galleries like Madrid’s Max Estrella courted the ever-elusive, tech-mogul art collector with digital work such as Daniel Canogar’s Ripple (2016), a DayGlo screen of scrambled CNN clips. The gallery also brought Bilateral Time Slicer (2016), Mexican artist Rafael Lozana Hemmer’s interactive selfie machine that had been a hit at Untitled’s Miami Beach edition the month before.
But the real highlights of this new fair were the works you were unlikely to see at any others, including those from local institutions like the 500 Capp Street Foundation. The estate of the late American artist David Ireland presented limited-edition prints of his sketches, offering a rare look into his hand-drawn archives.
'Neutral (Itchy)', by Anouk Kruithof, 2017.
Next door to Galerie Perrotin was Casemore Kirkeby, a young gallery housed in San Francisco’s much buzzed-about Minnesota Street Project complex that had never shown at any art fairs before. A specialist in photography ‘in all its forms’, according to associate director Jennifer O’Keeffe, its highlights included Anouk Kruithof’s Neutral (Itchy) (2017), pictured above, comprising streaks of colour printed on a PVC curtain and pinned to the corner with metal bars; or Owen Kydd’s Heavy Water (2015), hypnotic video footage of a black droplet of water.
Prosjektrom Normanns brought work by Ann Iren Buan to the fair. Pictured, A Pull of the Sun and Moon, 2015
Prospect, by Chris Engman, 2016, presented by Luis De Jesus Los Angeles
Institutions like 500 Capp Street gave the fair a sense of local identity, printing works from the late artist David Ireland’s archives
Untitled (Scheme #2 M.O.C.A. L.A.), by David Ireland.
Harmony Murphy Gallery was part of the fair’s sizeable Los Angeles contingent. Pictured, Self portrait from March 2016, by Kathryn O’Halloran, 2016.
Things As They Are #39, by Erin O'Keefe, 2016, at Denny Gallery
The fair programming included artist Constance Hockaday’s Attention! We’ve Moved, 2017, a series of performances in collaboration with The Lab on queer identity and displacement that took place during a series of bay cruises.
Newz!, by Math Bass, 2016.
For emerging galleries like Manhattan’s FOUR AM, Untitled San Francisco marked its first fair appearance. Pictured, Vayyyyyyyyyse, by Robin Cameron, 2015.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Untitled San Francisco website (opens in new tab)
-
On your marks: the best looking sports watchesChoose the right sports watch for you, for its capabilites or its tools for outdoor adventure, bringing the greatest physical and mental benefits
-
Ten years of Microsoft Surface: the company’s design team on what comes next
The Microsoft Surface series is a well-established line of premium mobile devices. How are its designers continuing to innovate?
-
Industrialised building system prototype proposes solution for urgent housing needs
We examine an industrialized building system prototype proposal by Chilean architecture practice Ignacio Rojas Hirigoyen Architects
-
The most surreal moments in Art Basel history, from taped bananas to wealth-ranking ATMs
As a wealth-ranking ATM stole hearts and headlines at Art Basel Miami 2022, we look back on the most controversial moments in the history of Art Basel
-
Artissima 2022: art exhibitions to see this weekend in Turin
Turin art fair Artissima 2022 spans the experimental and the perspective-bending; here’s what to see
-
Lucy McRae on gene editing, human intimacy, and tangible science fiction
We explore the universe of sci-fi artist and ‘body architect’ Lucy McRae, whose science fiction works fuse human intimacy, biological perfection and speculative, yet eerily familiar futures
-
Los Angeles exhibitions: an ongoing guide to the best shows in town
Read our ongoing picks of the best new and upcoming LA art exhibitions to see under the California sun
-
Dream weaving: Jeffrey Gibson fuses traditional folklore with contemporary art
-
Maxim Zhestkov’s hypnotic digital art makes virtual worlds tangible
Ahead of a major installation at London’s W1 Curates, digital artist Maxim Zhestkov discusses the creative potential in merging physical and virtual realities: ‘my work is about this thin membrane that separates us from the future’
-
Documenta 15 review: social practice, controversy and food for thought
Mired in evolving controversy, Documenta 15 has raised critical questions about transparency, accountability and creative freedom. Emily McDermott travels to Kassel to explore how an edition filled with social practice art urges active participation and throws global power structures into sharp relief
-
The dynamic duet of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Remembering Claes Oldenburg, who died aged 93 on 18 July 2022, we revisit our 2021 article celebrating his partnership with Coosje van Bruggen, as the duo’s final work together, Dropped Bouquet, was realised and exhibited at Pace New York’s ‘Claes & Coosje: A Duet’
