United Talent Agency has named Arthur Lewis as creative director of its Fine Arts and UTA Artist Space, the agency announced on Tuesday.
As creative director, Lewis will help guide the careers of artists represented in UTA’s Fine Arts group and will oversee exhibitions, programming, and partnerships with the Los Angeles and national art communities through the UTA Artist Space in Beverly Hills.
Lewis will oversee UTA Fine Arts clients and projects, working closely with UTA Fine Arts executive Lesley Silverman and UTA Artist Space director Zuzanna Ciolek.
“As a Los Angeleno and a collector, I’ve witnessed first-hand how important it is for artists to have space to experiment as they embark on ambitious career paths,” Lewis said in a statement. “My vision for UTA is to act as a partner to help realize artists’ dreams, and build toward their futures. I applaud UTA’s commitment to innovation and its community, and I look forward to carrying that legacy forward, and deepening the connection with our audience and our artists.”
Lewis will build on the legacy left by the late Joshua Roth, who founded and built UTA’s Fine Arts group in 2015 and established UTA Artist Space in 2016. Roth died in September 2018.
He joins UTA after serving as executive vice president of the New York Design Office for Kohl’s, where he oversaw product design and development. He has also held executive leadership roles at HSN, Hautelook, and Gap Inc., where he focused on brand management, merchandising, and product development.
“Having someone of Arthur’s stature, vision and taste join UTA will be an invaluable asset for the artists we represent,” UTA CEO Jeremy Zimmer said in a statement. “There is an amazing cultural collision occurring across society and Artists are on the pulse. Arthur intuitively understands this cultural cross section and recognizes how UTA can be positioned at the center of the conversation-helping bring the strongest voices to light. At the same time, Arthur’s extensive experience developing brands across multiple categories of business allows him to have the commercial perspective that is critical to today’s artists.”
UTA’s Fine Arts division was created to help contemporary artists apply their talents across other disciplines beyond the traditional art world and has programmed a series of successful activations, collaborating with artists to generate high-level programming, including the debut of Kurt Cobain’s never-before-seen artwork at the Seattle Art Fair.
The UTA Artist Space, created in 2016, is meant to be an extension of UTA’s commitment to the L.A. art scene, as well as a venue for showcasing global talent and new work. Recently, UTA Artist Space and Swizz Beatz presented “DREAMWEAVERS,” a group exhibition curated by Nicola Vassell that contemplates the surreal in society against a vigorously shifting 21st century. Currently on view is a solo exhibition by Marco Castillo, his first solo exhibition in the U.S. after 26 years of collaboration within the world-renowned Los Carpinteros collective.