Untitled Art, Houston Announces 2026 Prize Winners
By Nicholas Frank | Glasstire | October 6, 2026
The Untitled Art, Houston art fair, which wrapped up Sunday, has announced the winners of its round of prizes, a mix of acquisition and residency awards in recognition of artistic excellence.
The second annual fair ran October 1-4 at the George R. Brown Convention Center and featured 98 galleries from 20 countries, including 17 Texas venues. Following its inaugural edition in 2025, during which four different prizes were awarded, Untitled Art, Houston announced a round of new prizes for the 2026 fair, in partnership with several Houston institutions.
Two UT MD Anderson Cancer Center Acquisition Prizes were awarded, to Michelle Blade of Night Gallery in Los Angeles, and to Miami artist Kelly Tapia-Chuning of Santa Fe gallery Kouri + Corrao. The selected artworks will go on display in the center’s clinical facilities in support of care and healing.
As gallery owner Justin Kouri told Glasstire, “Kelly dismantles vintage serapes from the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s as a way of dismantling the colonialization of Indigenous peoples in Mexico, but not only is she exploring or mourning the death of a culture, she’s envisioning what the future could be.”
The artist is “immersed in the healing power of art,” he said, and the selected artwork, titled Ocotillo Blood, refers to a desert plant regarded traditional as “heart medicine, so it was kismet that this was the piece that they were attracted to, given given the nature of the collection and where it’ll eventually live.”