Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/660799
B Y C AT H E R I N E D. A N S P O N . P R O D U C E D B Y M I C H E L L E AV I Ñ A . P H OTO G R A P H Y C A S E Y D U N N F O R S I S T E R B R OT H E R M A N A G E M E N T. INSIDE THE MONASTICALLY SERENE HIGH-RISE OF ONE OF TEXAS' GREAT ART DEALERS G allerist Barbara Davis is one part irrepressible Auntie Mame and another dose unfiltered Bette Midler, complete with raucous laugh. But where she's made her mark is with her unflinching standards: Her eye is as unerring as that of Leo Castelli, the late gallerist to Rauschenberg, Johns and Warhol. Davis grew up in L.A., attending the mythic Hollywood High; Ricky Nelson was a classmate. Her late mom, Ruth Rummans, was an influence, and a catalog on the occasion of Davis' 30th anniversary as a gallerist is dedicated to her: "Mother, Grandmother, Spitfire." Her stepdad was a television promoter. Half-brother Michael Rummans, with whom she's close, plays in The Sloths, an L.A-based garage rock band famously reunited after 50 years to headline last year's SxSW. A cousin, Sharon Simon, used to work for Steven Spielberg and was enlisted for his Shoah Project. Davis, while not exposed to the art world, was surrounded by a creative milieu from an early age. She married young and lived in the New York area but started in the art biz after moving to Houston. The year was 1981. Her first gallery was a modest shoebox of a space, but within four years she was among the founding dealers of the city's first gallery enclave: the Arquitectonica-designed Colquitt Gallery Row, a poster building for Post Modernism if there ever was one, and the seat of power of the Houston art world for at least 20 years. Davis is among the second wave of Houston gallerists who followed a generation after the pioneering powerhouse Meredith Long (established 1957) and a dozen years after mainstays Geri and Charles Hooks. She arrived on the scene in the decade after Betty Moody and Texas Gallery's Fredericka Hunter and Ian Glennie opened spaces in, respectively, the mid- to early 1970s. Davis' entrée was a few years before Hiram Butler (1984) and Kerry Inman (1990) and nearly 15 years ahead of María Inés Sicardi, who just marked her gallery's 20th in 2014. With the abovementioned dealers, she forged the avant-garde bedrock of our city's current gallery system, which is still the envy of every other metropolis in Texas, notwithstanding the fresh energy blowing down from Dallas. Davis is a doyenne of contemporary action with a carefully calibrated program. Her gallery presents Texas artists such as the futuristic Paul Fleming of the cool resin-and- Hydrocal wall works; Joe Mancuso, the legendary king of minimalism mined from The Home Depot materials who's often cited as the best artist working in Houston today; and light master Jay Shinn, currently completing a commission for Bush Intercontinental Airport that unveils this summer. These talents are exhibited in a stable alongside national and internationals such as Andrea Bianconi, an Italian who's on a curatorial watch list for his conceptual art and performance pieces pollinated with drawings, and Danish-born Mie Olise, whose lush canvases reference the language of abstraction while evoking modern fairy tales. Now full force ahead into her fourth decade as a dealer, Davis has exhibited in the platinum standard of American art fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach; served up solos for Donald Lipski and Joseph Beuys; brought new talent to light; and, along the way, elevated the energy and dialogue of the Texas art scene. But her greatest attribute is having "the eye." Davis is perhaps best known as the talent scout who launched the careers of megawatt art stars, including former Core Fellows Julie Mehretu (winner of a MacArthur Genius Grant) and Shahzia Sikander. Thirty-some years after she first flourished as one of the anchor dealers of Colquitt Gallery Row, Davis' energy is undiminished. Since 2005, she's mounted shows and presided over 4411 Montrose, the Museum District fortress for gallery action. As the first tenant of 4411, she is a particularly vocal and avid supporter of recent arrivals David Shelton Gallery and Cindy Lisica Gallery, which both opened new spaces in the building this January. Davis' home court is serene, uncluttered, almost monastic in its simplicity. Surprisingly, the 1,600-square-feet Galleria- area sky-rise she shares with her schnauzer, Jackson, is free of Architect Frank Gehry's Beaver chair, 1987, formed from cardboard, functions as a sculpture in Barbara Davis' monochromatic living room. Mie Olise's wall painting references a metaphoric voyage. Nomade 2 sofa by Didier Gomez from Ligne Roset. The ottoman is a timeless design Davis has owned for several decade, now painted to match the interiors. Chez Barbara DAVIS