Damîen Dakota Curates Special Projects Focused on Cognitive Dissonance, Bringing Together Critical Dialogue Across Miami Art Week.
Miami Beach, FL — November 4, 2026 – On the eve of its 15th anniversary, Untitled Art is pleased to announce its 2026 Program, featuring its Special Projects sector, which provides artists, galleries, and non-profits the opportunity to present large-scale installations outside traditional booth spaces, alongside a dynamic program of live conversations and performances, key cultural partnerships, and an expanded series of artist prizes and residency opportunities.
Special Projects
Guest-curated by Damîen Dakota, founder of Super Dakota, this year’s Special Projects brings together 12 presentations from galleries and organizations across North America, Europe, and the Caribbean. Centered on a curatorial focus of cognitive dissonance, the sector explores contradiction, ambiguity, and competing realities through immersive and site-specific installations, interactive digital environments, sculpture, video, performance, and community-focused non-profit presentations across the fairgrounds. By addressing urgent questions of technology, identity, politics, memory, community, and environmental responsibility, the projects invite audiences to engage with the tensions that define contemporary life and consider how artists are responding to an increasingly fragmented cultural landscape.
“The idea of cognitive dissonance emerged from thinking about the contradictions that shape contemporary life. The artists in this sector engage those tensions in remarkably different ways, but all of them invite viewers to sit with complexity rather than seek easy resolution,” said Dakota. “What excites me most is that these projects move beyond observation. They encourage participation, reflection, and dialogue, asking us to consider our own role within the systems we inhabit.
Highlights include April Bey‘s Equity in Collecting, presented by TERN, which is a pioneering initiative designed to expand access to art collecting for individuals from historically marginalized communities. Anna Barlik’s Flags of Non-Existent Countries, presented by Nguyen Wahed, offers a series of fictional flags assembled from autonomous components that reflect the fluidity of identity and the human search for belonging. Exploring the intersection of artificial intelligence, political rhetoric, and collective memory, Gabo Arora‘s The Great Dictator, presented by Pariah Interactive and Lightshed, is an AI-powered interactive installation that places participants directly within archival political speeches. With The Shape of Consciousness, presented by Imaz Foundation, Sebastián Errázuriz approaches suicide prevention through sculpture, image-making, and public engagement; a portion of the project’s proceeds will benefit suicide-prevention education and dissemination of the Columbia Protocol. Signe Pierce‘s ELECTROTEXTURE, presented by ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY, investigates the tension between direct experience and technologically mediated perception with imagery captured and transformed by smartphone camera systems. Miami-based Germane Barnes offers Pull Up a Chair, presented by Studio Barnes. Drawing on traditions of Southern hospitality and rooted in local identity and placemaking, Barnes’ transforms a shared chair design into an imaginative seating arrangement that invites visitors to sit and gather together.
Public Programming
Untitled Art’s celebrated programming returns with conversations, performances, and public programs designed to engage artists, curators, galleries, collectors, and cultural leaders in dialogue around some of the most pressing issues shaping contemporary culture. Complementing the on-site events, the fair’s VIP Program offers guests reserved access to intimate tours and private receptions at leading museums and cultural institutions throughout Miami.
Entering its seventh year with 125 conversations recorded to date, the Untitled Podcast brings its dedicated on-site lounge back to the fair floor. Live-recorded featured conversations explore the systems of support that sustain artists and cultural communities long-term. Selected panelists include curators Ariella Wolens (NSU Art Museum) and Anelys Alvarez, (Jorge M. Pérez Collection / El Espacio 23), as well as institutional leaders Mary Louise Schumacher (Rabkin Foundation), George Scheer (The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts), and Carolyn Sickles (Tulsa Artist Fellowship).
Artnet Airwaves brings five live podcast recordings to the fair on December 2nd and 3rd. Artnet’s The Art Angle and Art Market Minute take the talks stage alongside guest podcasts Nota Bene and NewCrits, with an audience Q&A after each session. The event is hosted by national art critic Ben Davis and Artnet news editor Margaret Carrigan, with Sonia Manalili as executive producer. Participants will include Patricia Garcia-Velez Hanna and CJ Hendry, among others. Recordings will be published across Untitled Art’s channels and Artnet’s editorial, podcast, video, and social platforms.
Featuring a dedicated day of podcast conversations in Spanish on December 4, a Curatorial Forum developed with Fundación M and The Ant Project discusses evolving artistic narratives across Latin America and reflects the fair’s continued commitment to sustaining discussions around the region. Speakers include Agustina Ferreyra (Guest Curator, Untitled Art’s Artist Spotlight; director of OMR; creative director of BODEGA, Mexico City), Verónica Flom (Director, Fundación Ama Amoedo, Uruguay/Argentina), Jennifer Inacio (Associate Curator at PAMM, Miami), Jose Lopez Serra (Director and Curator at Hidrante, San Juan), and Josseline Pinto (Independent curator, researcher and poet, Guatemala City), with discussions moderated by Guadalupe Garcia (founder of The Ant Project, Mexico City).
Additional conversations and speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
The fair will also host a series of live performances and activations throughout the week. Highlights include:
Body in the Loop, a live photographic performance by Isabelle Wenzel, presented as part of Jeni Abramson Gallery’s Provisional Evidence Special Project, in which images are continuously created, printed, rearranged, and reincorporated into the installation.
Whale Whispering Gathering, led by Michaela Harrison and presented by Non Profit exhibitor New World School of the Arts, a participatory experience exploring environmental awareness, listening practices, and collective connection through whale song, voice, and discussion.
As part of ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY’s Special Project by Signe Pierce, the artist will activate the booth, inviting fair audiences to join lively conversations and demonstrations that explore the aesthetic and philosophical foundations of her ELECTROTEXTURE series.
A special musical performance by a Latin Grammy-winning artist, presented in collaboration with Espacio Sonoro, a Miami-based cultural platform exploring the intersection of music and contemporary art. Full details will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
A full performance schedule will be found on Untitled Art’s website before the fair opening.
Partnerships
Untitled Art’s expanded Prize Program will connect galleries and artists with museums, foundations, and cultural organizations through acquisitions, exhibition opportunities, and residencies. The fair welcomes four new Prize Partners this year —Asia Society Texas, El Espacio 23, Loews Miami Beach Hotel, and NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale — alongside three returning partners, Eighth House Residency, Fountainhead Arts and Vortic, all longstanding collaborators of the program.
These prizes include:
Asia Society Texas Exhibition Prize (new): One artist from this year’s fair will be selected to participate in the museum’s fall 2027 group exhibition in Houston, TX. The exhibition will focus on food culture and contemporary art.
Eighth House Residency Prize (returning): Provides a rural Vermont residency with live-work accommodations, farm-sourced meals, travel, and a materials budget, focused on rest and creative exploration.
El Espacio 23 Residency Prize (new): Offers a 2027 Miami residency with furnished accommodations, shared studio space, round-trip travel, a $1,000 honorarium, $1,000 per diem, and up to $1,000 in production support.
Fountainhead Residency Artist Prize (returning): Offers a one-month Miami residency with studio and living space, round-trip airfare, a stipend, and access to Fountainhead’s professional development network. The prize is awarded to Dalton Gata, presented by Newchild, who will join Fountainhead’s November cohort.
The Loews Hotel Special Projects Prize (new): Awards $10,000, a featured installation in the hotel’s public spaces during Miami Art Week, and complimentary accommodations from December 1–6, 2026. The prize is awarded to Lester Rodriguez, presented by NO PLACE / Nueveochenta, Arroniz, NF/Nieves Fernandez, who will activate the hotel with his series titled Marea Alta.
NSU Art Museum Acquisition Prize (new): Commits approximately $20,000 to acquire one or more works for the museum’s permanent collection, ensuring the piece remains publicly accessible.
Vortic Best Digital Booth (returning): Grants one Artist Spotlight participating artist and gallery a free Vortic annual subscription and the opportunity to curate a solo or group presentation on Vortic in 2027.
Ambassadors Committee
Untitled Art is pleased to continue its longstanding Ambassadors Committee, a distinguished group of invited individuals who champion the fair and reflect its core values and mission. Each committee member collaborates in a manner that reflects their unique position and contributions to the field. This year, we are delighted to welcome three new members to the committee: Storm Ascher (founder of Superposition and the Hamptons Black Art Council), Carl Gambino (contemporary art collector and leading real estate broker), and Anwarii Musa (art advisor). These new additions join continuing Committee members Jack Benmeleh, Mario Cader-Frech, Andrew Freiser, Adam Green, Marcela Guerrero, Patricia Hanna, and Hank Willis Thomas.
Untitled Shop
Through a special collaboration, Untitled Art partners with Cool Kids Love Art to present an exclusive on-site retail experience. Featuring a limited-edition Untitled Art tote bag, alongside a selection of hats, hoodies, and T-shirts, the Untitled Shop will operate daily and reflect the fair and brand’s shared commitment to bringing artistic expression beyond traditional exhibition spaces and into everyday life.
Special Projects Participants
Alfredo Travieso | Dimensions Variable, Miami
Anna Barlik | Nguyen Wahed, New York / London
April Bey | TERN, Nassau
Fernanda Froes | The55Project Art Foundation, Miami
Gabo Arora | Pariah Interactive and Lightshed, New York
Germane Barnes | Studio Barnes, Miami
Isabelle Wenzel | Jeni Abramson Gallery, Los Angeles
Lizzie Munn | Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London
Mark Flood | Daily Flood, Houston
Max Siedentopf | NINO MIER GALLERY, Brussels / New York
Sebastián Errázuriz | Imaz Foundation, New York
Signe Pierce | ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY, London
Official Partners
The Official Partners of Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2026 are Chase Sapphire Reserve, Houston First, J.P. Morgan, LALO Tequila, Lexus, Champagne Pommery, Condesa Gin, and By Michael Miller. The fair warmly welcomes Chase Sapphire Reserve as the Exclusive Credit Card and Lexus as the Exclusive Automobile partner. Through these new partnerships, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmembers,VIPs, and all attendees at Untitled Art, Miami Beach have the opportunity to enjoy special activations and curated benefits. Champagne Pommery returns as a partner of Untitled Art for the sixth consecutive year. In addition to champagne flowing all week from dedicated Champagne Pommery bars throughout the fair, Pommery will serve their signature Cuvée Apanage 1874 to guests on December 1st. This special cuvée, dedicated to the culinary arts, celebrates the 150th anniversary of the creation of the first Brut. Houston First joins Untitled Art, Miami Beach 2026 as the fair’s Official Destination Partner, connecting its flagship Miami Beach edition with its continued growing presence in Houston. The partnership spotlights Houston’s vibrant arts and cultural landscape and celebrated culinary scene with an activation reception in the VIP Lounge featuring a Houston-based chef.
