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76 Full circle: In what was once the gallery foyer, works by Core Fellows in Inman's stable David Aylsworth (left) and Brad Tucker (floor), a canvas by Core Fellow Jeff Elrod (represented by Texas Gallery) and a work on paper by Kirsten Hassenfeld. Auble's guitar case stands ready. Homeowners Inman and Auble bask in the garden with their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Livee. Both are passionate about promoting artists in their respective fields — Inman through her eponymous gallery, Auble via his Blue Corn Music label. half." By January 1992, Inman upped the game and took over the entire Barkdull space after Muth moved her outsider art operations to Santa Fe. Within these modest, domestically scaled interiors, Inman presented challenging contemporary programming that would rewrite Houston art history. From the beginning, exhibitions signaled serious purpose, and talents stood out for their commitment to a new type of practice. For early gallery-goers, there was a sense of being on the ground floor of a new wave of art making — one with a strong conceptual component. Those days are still fondly recalled decades later by collectors, critics, and the gallery's artists, although Inman herself says only, "I have no rearview mirror. I am always looking ahead." The first artist she showed is still with the gallery. "When I decided to embark on this adventure, I approached Kristin Musgnug, who was finishing at the Core Program," Inman says. "We still work together 27 years later. By 1996, Inman made the move to buy the casa turned white cube on Barkdull, a savvy real estate venture. The '90s on Barkdull saw seminal shows for Core Fellow David Aylsworth, whom many regard as Houston's best abstract painter; West Coast photographer Todd Hido, known for his eerie scenes of vacant domestic interiors and homes observed at night; and hometown lenswoman Amy Blakemore, head of the photography department at Glassell, who would be featured in the Whitney Biennial 2006 for her use of the plastic Diana camera for deadpan portraits of the banal; as well as a promising conceptual sculptor from San Antonio, Dario Robleto, who would be "a game changer for the gallery." Inman says, "Dario was a young, ambitious artist and we connected immediately. My knowledge of geology was actually helpful." Robleto would receive recognition in the Whitney Biennial 2004, while that same year, Inman was awarded "Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Nationally" for mounting a Robleto solo highlighting the artist's obsessive in- vestigation into history and natural history, with a nod to Victorian romance. The booming and optimistic '90s also brought a different kind of romance for An educated eye: At the entrance looking towards the kitchen and living spaces, a canvas by Shimon Minamikawa from Misako & Rosen, Tokyo (foreground left). Right, a conceptual sculpture by Dario Robleto, who first showed in Houston in 1999 in this very space.