Janet Phelps

2025 Distinguished Alumni

B.A. Art '81

 

Janet Phelps successfully conceived and mounted several high-profile alternative art fairs including Meat Market Art Fair in New York, Fast FWD Miami, artpoint and The NADA Art Fair, all in Miami Beach. Her curatorial ventures have focused on experimental and collaborative projects, working with of some of the most intriguing artists of the time.

 

Janet curated Fight HIV/AIDS at MACO, the contemporary art fair, Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico City, which was sponsored by MTV Latin America, MAC Cosmetics, Maco Mexico Arte Contemporaneo and the Pan American Health Organization.

 

She was curator for the Starwood Urban Advisors collection in Washington, D.C., starting in 1998 where she oversaw the assembly and selection of contemporary art for the collection, which showcases and promotes the works of emerging artists and features work in all media including artists Stephen Vitiello, Jason Rhoades, Rachel Harrison, Amy Sillman, Tom Sachs, Marco Maggi, and Ronald Moran. She continues to advise the company, now UIA Management, LLC, based in Miami Beach, Florida. 

 

Janet has consulted with a variety of organizations such as Visual AIDS, Friends of the High Line, Debs & Co., The American Federation of Arts, Parsons School of Design Fine Arts Department, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council — all in New York — and The New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. She serves on the Board of Directors for Momenta Art in Brooklyn and her writings have appeared in several publications. 

 

In 2007 she served as juror and guest curator at MARTE (Museo de Arte de El Salvador). Janet invited Jason Middelbrook and Stephen Vitiello to collaborate with the local artists. Both artists created new work and donated their work to the museum. In 2008, Janet curated the exhibit, Empire of This, at Claire Oliver Gallery in New York, which included artists David Humphrey, Angela Dufresne, Medrie MacPhee, Sheila Pepe and Suzanne Wright. She returned to El Salvador in the summer and mounted a video installation of seven Central Asian artists at MARTE. She is currently working on an exhibition that will feature artists from Central America. 

 

Janet holds a B.A. in Art from Oklahoma State University, and an M.A. in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. She has been an independent curator and consultant in New York for the past 18 years. She moved to Houston in 2006.