For 42 years, Barbara Davis Gallery has brought groundbreaking contemporary art to Houston. Driven by her intuitive sensibilities and perennially fresh vision, Barbara Davis has championed a generation of significant contemporary artists. In the process she has challenged a generation of art collectors, both seasoned and aspiring, to see the beauty and value in their work through dialogs and panel discussions with prominent museum curators and artists from across genres.
She has launched the careers of international artists such as Julie Mehretu, one of the most important contemporary artists of our time, and Andrea Bianconi, who has become an international figure in the contemporary art scene, having given Mehretu her first gallery exhibition and Bianconi his first U.S. exhibition. She was also one of the first to bring to Houston the influential names of Joseph Beuys, Kiki Smith, Louis Bourgeois, Jonathan Borofsky, Günther Förg, Allan McCollum, Gilbert & George, Chuck Close, Robert Longo, Sally Mann, Jenny Holzer, Sam Gilliam, Jessica Stockholder, John Baldessari and Elizabeth Peyton among many others. She brought progressive international exhibitions such as Leipzig Select, artists from the New Leipzig School, and exhibitions for Beijing East Village artists Zhang Huan and Li Wei. Barbara Davis Gallery was one of the first Texas galleries to be included in the influential and prestigious Art Basel Miami Beach art fair.
The gallery’s exhibitions have been reviewed in international publications such as ArtForum, Art in America, Art News, Flash Art International, The Art Economist, and The New York Times among many others. Her passion for exhibiting innovative contemporary art and her commitment to educating her collectors and the community has driven the focus of the gallery for 42 years.
