{"id":81832,"date":"2025-12-09T15:52:06","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/81832\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:52:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T15:52:06","slug":"bowie-house-fort-worth-inside-the-citys-most-unique-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/81832\/","title":{"rendered":"Bowie House Fort Worth: Inside the City\u2019s Most Unique Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fort Worth has never been short on swagger, but the swagger has always\u00a0come\u00a0with a kind of unfussy practicality \u2014 a city that wears its history the way it wears its boots.\u00a0So\u00a0when the Bowie House, Auberge Collection,\u00a0opened smack in the middle of Fort Worth\u2019s\u00a0Cultural District\u00a0in December of 2023, most locals assumed it would slide neatly into the familiar mix of polished hospitality and quiet wealth that defines this part of town. The hotel\u00a0would go on to become a recognizable backdrop\u00a0appearing in \u201cLandman\u201d Season 2 as a signifier of taste and money. But most viewers were missing the real story.\u00a0The Bowie\u00a0House\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just a hotel. It is,\u00a0almost accidentally, one of the most unusual and ambitious\u00a0art galleries in Texas<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not a single\u00a0wall was built with that intention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet once Bowie House owner and lifelong collector Jo Ellard<\/a> stepped inside the finished shell of the property, the shape of the place \u2014 its long corridors, generous lounges, and sunlit landings \u2014 presented a possibility she\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0ignore. The hotel could serve as a\u00a0living\u00a0extension of her home collection, a place where art\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0hang behind velvet ropes but brushed past guests on their way to dinner. Ellard had spent more than twenty years collecting, filling rooms and storage units with pieces that never\u00a0saw\u00a0the light of day.\u00a0The\u00a0Bowie House, in her mind, became the ideal remedy: a space where art could be enjoyed, not stored.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gallery at Bowie House\u00a0extends through hallways, lounges, stairwells, guest rooms, and even bathrooms, making the building a place where art is inseparable from the experience.\u00a0Oh, and if you like a piece,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a good chance\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0for sale.\u00a0The hotel has several QR code placards\u00a0that guests can scan for information about the artwork inside.\u00a0Bowie\u00a0House\u00a0also offers\u00a0guided tours\u00a0on\u00a0Tuesdays and Saturdays\u00a0at 1:30 p.m. each week, led by Gallery Director Emily Gregoire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gregoire, a curator whose calm precision anchors the space,\u00a0moves through the\u00a0hotel\u00a0with the quiet confidence of someone who knows every story behind every piece.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing here is an afterthought,\u201d she says. \u201cEvery wall is an opportunity.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The collection began long before the hotel opened. For more than twenty years, Ellard amassed a private collection so large it eventually outgrew her homes and storage facilities. When the Bowie House came together, Ellard saw a chance to bring those pieces back into the world. Gregoire remembers Ellard\u00a0walking\u00a0the halls and remarking that the walls\u00a0shouldn\u2019t\u00a0be empty. The result was a gallery unlike any traditional museum or commercial space \u2014 a hotel where every work is for sale and where the collection behaves like a living organism, constantly evolving as pieces move in and out. Within the first year,\u00a090%\u00a0of the original installation sold, leaving Gregoire to manage the turnover with the precision of a seasoned curator, keeping the gallery cohesive even as artists rotated in and out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere you look, there\u2019s something,\u201d Gregoire says. \u201cIt\u2019s meant to feel alive, not sterile.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The collection spans\u00a0roughly 750\u00a0works. Only a select few works are part of the hotel\u2019s permanent collection.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0to say, certain pieces\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0up for grabs, but most everything you see and touch inside this luxury space\u00a0is yours for the right\u00a0price.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe has this habit of meeting artists and saying, \u2018Can I collect your work, and do you want to be part of the gallery?\u2019\u201d Gregoire\u00a0explains with a smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among\u00a0the first\u00a0arresting works is a monumental\u00a0pistol\u00a0sculpted entirely from hand-tooled leather by Texas artist Lance\u00a0Marshall\u00a0Boen. The piece\u00a0is free-standing at an angle and extends well beyond 6 feet. Visitors are encouraged to touch and interact with the piece. Boen\u00a0produces only two such pieces\u00a0a\u00a0year. Visitors often assume the work is metal or wood. Only when they step close enough to see the stitching and texture does the truth reveal itself \u2014 and with it, a shift in\u00a0perception\u00a0Gregoire loves to watch unfold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Across the halls, a spectrum of artists reveals the gallery\u2019s refusal to be boxed in. There is the globally celebrated Ashley Collins, whose rise from homelessness to the most collected female Western artist in the world has become legend. There is Colombian sculptor Federico\u00a0Uribe, California-born, Texas-raised photographer Steve\u00a0Wruble, and Amsterdam tape\u00a0artist Max Zorn, whose work is built layer by layer with packing tape and a scalpel.\u00a0Zorn\u2019s\u00a0piece,\u00a0located\u00a0in the\u00a0lounge\u00a0area\u00a0titled \u201cLet Them Have\u00a0the Rest,\u201d is one of a limited number of works not for sale from Ellard\u2019s collection.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Ellard\u2019s philosophy\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0just about displaying\u00a0beauty \u2014\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0about circulation. And as mentioned before,\u00a0almost everything\u00a0art-related outside of a few pieces like Zorn\u2019s are up for grabs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is for sale,\u201d Gregoire says. \u201cEvery room, every hallway, every bathroom. And that makes us the first of our kind in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When\u00a0pieces\u00a0sell, the gallery refreshes itself. When they\u00a0don\u2019t, they stay until the right moment arrives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only swap when things sell,\u201d she\u00a0explains. \u201cWe want each piece to hold its own space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even the furnishings tell stories.\u00a0The Hotel\u2019s bar, for instance, is\u00a0authentically\u00a0from the\u00a01800s, hauled in from an auction after Ellard saw a single photograph.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe scrapped the entire modern bar design and said, \u2018We\u2019re bringing this one in,\u2019\u201d Gregoire recalls. \u201cYou can still see the patina \u2014 the life it has lived.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s\u00a0even an authentic pool table from the same era in the game room, refurbished enough to be used but still worn with the burns of years of cigarettes and other scars.\u00a0Every element, from hand-hammered flooring meant to look trodden by horses to vintage sculptures fired in open flames in a lakeside village in Mexico, reflects Ellard\u2019s insistence on authenticity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Worth\u00a0isn\u2019t into the\u00a0brand-new and shiny,\u201d Gregoire says. \u201cIt\u2019s about history you can feel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What ties the disparate pieces together is the gallery\u2019s welcoming ethos. Bowie House\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0curate for\u00a0an elite audience; it\u00a0curates for\u00a0Fort Worth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cJoe created this place so that boots and suits feel the same,\u201d Gregoire says. \u201cIt\u2019s a hub for the city, not just a hotel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Local groups book tours. Private collectors stop by. And with each exhibition \u2014 especially the upcoming showcase\u00a0by Zorn\u00a0on Jan. 11, 2026\u00a0\u2014 the gallery attracts\u00a0new audiences drawn as much by the art as by the space made famous on screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the gallery is a reflection of\u00a0the\u00a0city.\u00a0As Gregoire puts it, standing beneath a wall dense with stories, \u201cArt here isn\u2019t something you look at from a distance \u2014 it\u2019s something you live with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Featured Artists\u00a0at Bowie House:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hijack\u00a0
\n\tCarly Allen Martin\u00a0
\n\tIsabell\u00a0Beyel\u00a0
\n\tJoey Brock\u00a0
\n\tJames Cacciatore\u00a0
\n\tElle\u00a0Caerbert\u00a0
\n\tDaniel Allen Cohen\u00a0
\n\t\u00a0JD Cole\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tAshley Collins\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tStephen D’Onofrio\u00a0
\n\tJacob Genovesi\u00a0
\n\tVeryl Goodnight\u00a0
\n\tLisa Gordon\u00a0
\n\tRudy Hetzer\u00a0
\n\tAbigail Faye Jackson\u00a0
\n\tConstance Jaeggi\u00a0
\n\tAndrey Kozakov\u00a0
\n\tLeon Loughridge\u00a0
\n\tJacob Lovett\u00a0
\n\tBruce R. MacDonald\u00a0
\n\tIngrid Dee Magidson\u00a0
\n\tKristin Moore\u00a0
\n\tKaren Navarro\u00a0
\n\tJarrod Oram\u00a0
\n\tJoel\u00a0Ostlind\u00a0
\n\tPaula S. Kraemer\u00a0
\n\tErik\u00a0Skoldberg\u00a0
\n\tAnton Smit\u00a0
\n\tJ.M. Stubbs\u00a0
\n\tFederico Uribe\u00a0
\n\tCaroline Vaughn Jarosz\u00a0
\n\tSteve Wrubel\u00a0
\n\tDavid Yarrow\u00a0
\n\tMax Zorn\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth has never been short on swagger, but the swagger has always\u00a0come\u00a0with a kind of unfussy practicality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6595,39653,16922,889,16719,5490,116,118,117,39654,1012,2324,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-81832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-art-gallery","10":"tag-artists","11":"tag-arts-and-culture","12":"tag-bowie-house","13":"tag-cultural-district","14":"tag-fort-worth","15":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","16":"tag-fort-worth-news","17":"tag-guided-tours","18":"tag-stephen-montoya","19":"tag-style","20":"tag-top-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}