United Talent Agency (UTA) has put the operations of its fine arts division ‘on pause’ following the departure of UTA Fine Arts director Arthur Lewis. The agency was the first of its kind to move into the contemporary artworld in 2015, working to represent and promote the work of artists within the popular entertainment, digital and social media landscape.
In exhibition spaces in Los Angeles and Atlanta, UTA previously staged exhibitions by artists including Lonnie Holley, the Estate of Ernie Barnes, Mandy El-Sayegh, Ferrari Sheppard, Sasha December, Célia Rakotondrainy and Hely Omar Gonzalez. These galleries will now close, although visual artists will continue to be represented by UTA in other divisions of the agency.
Lewis was appointed as a director in 2019 following the sudden death of lawyer Joshua Roth, who founded the talent agency’s fine art branch. Lewis oversaw the opening of the Atlanta UTA Artist Space last year and was planning an expansion to New York. In a parting statement, Lewis thanked UTA’s chief executive Jeremy Zimmer for being ‘a true patron of the arts’.
