Powerhouse Art Woman Opens Her Own Gallery in Montrose — Janice Bond Adds to Houston’s Foundational Female Art Leadership

Houston’s gallery scene boasts a series of foundational women dealers — Fredericka Hunter, Betty Moody, Barbara Davis, Kerry Inman, María Inés Sicardi and Allison Ayers. Together, they comprise more than two centuries in the art biz. Now there’s a promising new powerhouse woman art dealer whose future contributions are anticipated to be equally formidable.

Cue Janice Bond, whose email signature hints at the unique attributes she brings: “Cultural Architect | Art Advisor | Interdisciplinary Artist.”

A polymath raised in Houston, Janice Bond’s formative experiences as a teen were hanging out in Montrose at Brasil on Monday nights for music and AvantGarden (then Helios) on Wednesday evenings for poetry.

After moving to Chicago for college, Bond honed her practice as an artist immersed in issues of identity, sacred geometry, sound frequencies and indigenous fractal patterns. She also added curator and art advisor to her CV, founding Bond Creative Advisors in 2009.

A plum post at a Texas museum opened up a decade later, and Bond was coaxed back to her hometown of Houston in the summer of 2020. 

Bond would go on to serve as the deputy director for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, where she conceived the exhibition “Ming Smith: Feeling the Future,” which will be on view May 26 through October 1, 2023.

This fall, Bond steps out of the museum world to open a brick-and-mortar gallery in the 4411 Montrose Gallery Building. And she’s just been tapped by Seismique (a new art space carved out of a big box store space in West Houston) to serve as its first international director of civic art and immersive experiences.

But we predict it’s at 4411 where Janice Bond’s new endeavor dubbed Art Is Bond will have the greatest community impact.

“This gallery is also a project space, because there’s an opportunity to educate and really deepen the conversation and the narratives between Houston art and culture,” Bond tells PaperCity. “Then looking at Texas, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Stay tuned for more. But the first step already has been revealed.

Janice Bond Starts Strong

Art Is Bond’s inaugural exhibition “… and then there was (always)” opens next Friday, September 9. Expect seven local-to-global talents embracing mixed media, photography and painting. Artists Colby Deal, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Robert Hodge, Greg Noire, Anthony Suber, Lanecia Rouse Tinsley and Austin Uzor are all spotlighted. This first exhibition will show through November 6.

The new Art Is Bond gallery is located at 4411 Montrose Boulevard. For more information, click here.  

All the artwork images in this story were provided by Art Is Bond and the artists.