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G eologist turned art dealer Kerry Inman, pioneering gallerist to the MFAH Core Fellows, invites us into the Montrose home that she shares with her husband, music producer and record company owner Denby Auble. Catherine D. Anspon debriefs the dealer — who's set to exhibit at the gold standard of art fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach — about the parallel path from geological explo- ration to contemporary art, how a promoter of the avant-garde became a preservation- ist, and what's next as her influential gallery marks its 27th year. Three decades ago, Houston's art scene was considerably different than it is today. In fact, pre-internet, the international art world seemed to solely revolve around New York. But the vibe in Houston was flour- ishing. Five years after "Fresh Paint: The Houston School," the blockbuster spot- light on hometown artists, Houston shone brightly as an energetic regional art nexus. That seminal 1985 exhibition, organized by the MFAH, went on to travel to P.S. 1 in NYC, placing Houston on the national radar as an art-making place to be reckoned with. Colquitt, River Oaks, and the Museum District, then as now, were gallery Meccas. Houston talents amidst this lively eco sys- tem, with the exception of Dorothy Hood, were big, usually brash male painters. Dick Wray, Earl Staley, and the gentlemanly Richard Stout ruled the day. Then came Kerry Inman. It was 1990, and the fresh-faced scientist had arrived four years earlier, part of a wave of trans- plants whose brainpower was in demand in the energy biz. Raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, Inman combines a dual degree in fine arts and geology from Colgate with a master's degree from the University of Arizona in geoscience. The daughter of an engineer dad and a creative mom who exhibited watercolors and designed clothes, Inman wanted to be involved in the art scene. Acquiring her first piece — a Lucas Johnson lithograph, Jugete, on a payment plan from Moody Gallery — was "a trans- formative moment," she says. "It was the first time I had ever owned something by someone I didn't know. Being in a family with generations of artists, all the art we lived with was by us." Volunteering at Channel 8 and the Art League were but two of the pivotal expe- riences that sparked the budding gallerist to open a Saturdays-only project space in a rented room of a folk-art dealer sited a few blocks from the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on Barkdull. "I was cap- tivated by the idea of sharing the human condition through art," she says. "The artist is really brave to put a work out in the world. I wanted to share that moment with others, and also represent the artists doing that." The spark to launch Inman Gallery was an edgy group of artists with international pedigrees who were under-known in Hous- ton and certainly not staking out a claim on Colquitt Gallery Row. "I met artists without representation who happened to be Core Artists in Residence [at the Glassell School of Art, MFAH] and began thinking about opening a space to give them visibility," she says. "I quickly figured that I couldn't quit my day job and needed to start some- where with low overhead. Leslie Muth had a space that was mostly closed because she had moved to Santa Fe, only mounting a show every six weeks or so. I approached her about using the space for a couple of trial exhibitions, and she convinced me to open in her small gallery. We were only open on Saturdays for the first year and a 75 A Sanford Bigger's wood- cut, scored from a CAMH Gala auction, dominates the upstairs library. The living room adjoins the modest space where the original Inman Gallery was founded in 1990. Left, an oversized work on paper by Nina Bovasso, whom Inman has shown. Right, David Ayslworth's Aflame with Gay Anticipation, 2006. Mid-century leather settees sourced from Santa Fe. Over the fireplace, a Dario Robleto wall sculpture formed from seashells serenaded by music, I Wish the Ocean Sounded More Like Patsy Cline, 1998, 2008.