Inman Gallery in Houston will celebrate its move to a new space with a group exhibition, The Long View, opening on Saturday, December 6.
In March 2024, owner Kerry Inman announced that the gallery would be moving after two decades in its North Main Street location. The new gallery is located at 1502 Alabama Street, identified in a September 15 social media post as the gallery’s “forever home.”
Ms. Inman explained that owning her own building had been an ultimate goal, “something I have long dreamed of.”
Inman Gallery has been in operation for 35 years, evolving from a 13-foot square space with an emphasis on Houston-area artists, to an international program representing 34 artists now in its fourth location.
An installation view of “The Long View” at Inman Gallery
The new space is in a 1960s-era, 8,500-square-foot building in the Midtown neighborhood, once occupied by the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, and originally an auto-body shop. Ms. Inman worked with Miranda Miramon, an Associate Designer with Dillon Kyle Architects, on renovating the space into three exhibition galleries, with dedicated office and storage spaces. Mr. Kyle’s architectural concept for the building was a geode, with a rough exterior but jewel-like on the inside. As a former geologist with a desire to fit into the old Houston neighborhood, Ms. Inman said she appreciated the metaphor, and the idea of making a visit worth the experience.
Even with the necessity of working online, she said, “I’ve always wanted it to be really worth your while if you took the time to come to Inman Gallery in person.”
A July 9 celebratory social media post noted that the first artwork hung at the new space during renovations was the painting And Now a Toast to Unconditional Love by gallery artist JooYoung Choi. Among the 37 artists included in The Long View are gallery artists Erika Blumenfeld, Angela Fraleigh, Emily Joyce, Linarejos Moreno, Yuko Murata, Shaun O’Dell, Beth Secor, Marc Swanson, and Kristin Musgnug, a former Core Program Artist-In-Residence and the first artist Ms. Inman worked with when she opened the gallery in 1990.
Also featured in the exhibition are three artists born after the gallery’s establishment: Charis Ammon, Loc Huynh, and Alexis Pye. “One of the things that’s weird is you think, ‘Oh, the gallery’s so old, but I think of them as so young,’” Ms. Inman said. “So I’ve decided to think of [the gallery] as so young.”
The exhibition title was inspired by a conversation with New York artist Darren Waterston. Ms. Inman mentioned the long view down from one end of the building to the other that the architects insisted must be preserved in the renovation. “That’s the name of your show,” Waterston told her, because it has so many meanings, Ms. Inman explained, “honoring the long view that I’ve had on the gallery. Everything is always for the long term. You’re investing in artists for the long term. You’re investing in your community for the long term.”
Inman Gallery
Many artists in the show will be in attendance at the open house, including several out-of-state artists traveling for the occasion. The Saturday, December 6, event will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with remarks by Ms. Inman at noon.
Visit the Inman Gallery website, and its complementary archive site, for further information on the gallery’s history and artists.