Inman Gallery

Jamal Cyrus: Saharan Air Layer

Art League Houston
2026 Texas Artist of the Year

📍Opening reception: September 18, 6–8pm
🗓️On view September 18 – December 20, 2026

About the Exhibition:

Every summer, a massive cloud of sand and dust rises from the Sahara Desert and journeys from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean and the Sargasso and Caribbean Seas to arrive here in Houston. Physically connecting these two distant and distinct geographies, this collective body of dusty air known as the Saharan Air Layer subtly transforms our city with its layer of visible presence and its atmospheric effects as it is breathed into the bodies of all who live here.

In his exploration of the African diaspora and the continuities of sonic traditions, Jamal Cyrus uses collage, drawing, photography, installation, film, and performance in the exhibition to engage with questions around persistence, reclamation, and reassembly.

As part of the exhibition, Cyrus, joined by poet K. Curtis Lyle and bassist Damon Smith, will perform Horn Beam Sacrament on Saturday, October 17th at 5 pm at Art League Houston, in addition to an exhibition walkthrough with the artist on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at 3:30 pm.

The forthcoming monograph related to the exhibition features writings by scholars Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, W. Jamaal Wright, and poet K. Curtis Lyle, and is designed by Reto Geiser of MG&Co.

Image:

Jamal Cyrus
Dkonkr Root Extract, 2026
Saxophone, wood, wire, turnbuckles
Installation dimensions variable;
Object dimensions: 24 x 20 x 12 in (approx.)

Snapshots from opening weekend ✨

So much to celebrate! Many congratulations to Angela Fraleigh on the opening of her solo exhibition, Angela Fraleigh: I have decided not to be hungry

Thank you to everyone who joined us this weekend at the artist talk and our joint reception for WITNESS

Lastly, a very happy anniversary to the Kerry and the team as we celebrate Inman Gallery’s 36th anniversary 🎂

Thank you all for a joyful weekend!

Our fall shows are on view through October 31, 2026

Opening now! 🥂
Friday, September 11, 6-8pm

📍Angela Fraleigh: I have decided not to be hungry

and

📍WITNESS
A group exhibition featuring Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Ryan Driscoll, Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez, Angelica Raquel, and Didier William

Please join us in celebrating the opening of our fall season! We hope to see you soon!

Angela Fraleigh

Finishing touches on “They have no use for your song,” Angela Fraleigh’s latest monumental triptych

This work and many others will be on view in her solo show, “I have decided not to be hungry,” opening tomorrow (Friday, September 11) from 6–8pm

See you then!

___

Angela Fraleigh: “I have decided not to be hungry”

On view September 12–October 31, 2026

Opening reception:
📍Friday, September 11 from 6–8pm

Artist in conversation with Michelle White:
📍Saturday, September 12 at 1pm

WITNESS – Opening Friday, 6–8pm

Featuring the work of Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Ryan Driscoll, Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez, Angelica Raquel, and Didier William, WITNESS investigates the complex intersections of migration, cultural memory, and the lingering effects of colonization on the land and the body. Spectral forms unify the exhibition across medium. Haunting spirits, searching eyes, reaching limbs, and covered faces all exist in close relation to flora, fauna, and land. These figures operate as mythical conduits, reminding us that within the body exists an archive of histories, folklore, and memories.

On view concurrently with Angela Fraleigh: “I have decided not to be hungry,” the artists in WITNESS share Fraleigh’s practice of mining art history, recontextualizing historical imagery to explore themes of gender and race.

WITNESS is on view September 12 - October 31, 2026

Please join us for an opening reception tomorrow, Friday, September 11 from 6:00–8:00pm to celebrate 🥂

Image:

Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez
Dream Map and Cornucopia with Double-Headed Eagle, 2026
ink on Tyvek, mounted to cradled panel, text excerpted from a poem by Farid Matuk
68 1/2 x 46 x 1 3/4 in (174 x 116.8 x 4.4 cm) framed

📍Artist talk Saturday, September 12 at 1pm

Please join us this Saturday for a special conversation between artist Angela Fraleigh and Michelle White, Senior Curator at the Menil Collection

The event celebrates the opening weekend of Fraleigh’s solo exhibition, “I have decided not to be hungry,” on view September 12–October 31, 2026

The conversation will be in person at the gallery, streamed live on Instagram, and recorded for later viewing

See you there!

The gallery is CLOSED TOMORROW, Saturday, September 5 for the holiday weekend

Regular hours resume Tuesday, September 8 as we get ready for our fall season with a solo show by Angela Fraleigh, opening Friday, September 11, 6-8pm

Until then, we wish everyone a restful long weekend!

Forthcoming – Angela Fraleigh: I have decided not to be hungry

Save the dates:

📍Opening reception: Friday, September 11 from 6–8pm
📍Artist in conversation: Saturday, September 12 at 1pm

Angela Fraleigh’s newest paintings enter the charged terrain of the feral feminine, unleashing a cast of unruly figures animated by desire, instinct, and an irrepressible appetite. Maenads, witches, and animals emerge and recede through lush layers of paint, carrying an energy that shifts between ecstatic and intimate, violent and tender. Fire runs through the work not simply as an element, but as a condition: flame, fever, intensity, slow burn, illumination, and the heat through which one thing becomes another.

Drawn in part from works in the MFAH and the Menil Collection, fragments of art history become material to be summoned, disrupted, and recast, creating a quiet dialogue with the city’s collections. Fraleigh approaches painting as a form of alchemy, allowing images to collide, dissolve, and transmute. The resulting works operate like spells themselves. Lush and volatile, the paintings ask what becomes possible when the familiar slips its boundaries and something wild emerges.

Image details:

Angela Fraleigh
I said I wanted the dusk that isn’t dusk, but, instead, the thorny husk of the thing that drives me., 2026
oil, watercolor, moonwater, jadeite, hematite, carnelian, tigers eye, sugalite, bone black on Dibond panel
57 x 45 x 1 1/2 in (144.8 x 114.3 x 3.8 cm)

Angela Fraleigh

Today is the closing reception for “A Storm Held Still,” celebrating Erika Blumenfeld, MJ Daines, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Ruello, Sajeela Siddiq, and Carl Suddath

We’ll be serving tacos and coffee from 11am–1pm! The gallery is open until 5pm

If you haven’t made it by, now is your chance! Congrats to all the artists on this beautiful exhibition

See you soon!

Image:

MJ Daines
arch, 2026
thrifted cotton sweaters, mill end linen, steel
58 x 34 x 35 in (147.3 x 86.4 x 88.9 cm)

mjdaines

Today is the closing reception for “A Storm Held Still,” celebrating Erika Blumenfeld, MJ Daines, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Ruello, Sajeela Siddiq, and Carl Suddath

We’ll be serving tacos and coffee from 11am–1pm! The gallery is open until 5pm

If you haven’t made it by, now is your chance! Congrats to all the artists on this beautiful exhibition

See you soon!

Image:

Robert Ruello
Maybe It Lasts, 2025
acrylic and flashe on canvas
20 x 16 x 1 in (50.8 x 40.6 x 2.5 cm)

ruello58

Today is the closing reception for “A Storm Held Still,” celebrating Erika Blumenfeld, MJ Daines, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Ruello, Sajeela Siddiq, and Carl Suddath

We’ll be serving tacos and coffee from 11am–1pm! The gallery is open until 5pm

If you haven’t made it by, now is your chance! Congrats to all the artists on this beautiful exhibition

See you soon!

Image:

Sajeela Siddiq
Moses Writes, God Reads, 2025
charcoal, graphite, conte and pastel on BFK Rives
84 3/8 x 42 1/2 in (214.3 x 108 cm) each panel
84 3/8 x 85 in (214.3 x 215.9 cm) overall

Sajeela Siddiq

Today is the closing reception for “A Storm Held Still,” celebrating Erika Blumenfeld, MJ Daines, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Ruello, Sajeela Siddiq, and Carl Suddath

We’ll be serving tacos and coffee from 11am–1pm! The gallery is open until 5pm

If you haven’t made it by, now is your chance! Congrats to all the artists on this beautiful exhibition

See you soon!

Image:

Demetrius Oliver
Heliotropic, 2021
enamel on canvas
71 7/8 x 51 7/8 x 1 5/8 in (182.6 x 131.8 x 4.1 cm)

Today is the closing reception for “A Storm Held Still,” celebrating Erika Blumenfeld, MJ Daines, Demetrius Oliver, Robert Ruello, Sajeela Siddiq, and Carl Sudd

Final days to experience our summer exhibition, “A Storm Held Still”

Please join us for a closing reception on Saturday, August 29 from 11am–1pm! We’ll be serving breakfast tacos and coffee from our neighbors at Retrospect

Come say hi, have a bite, and celebrate our summer artists. We hope to see you there!

Image:

Robert Ruello
Talk of the Weather, 2025
acrylic and flashe on canvas
96 x 144 in (243.8 x 365.8 cm)

ruello58