2026 marks the 30th year of Catherine Couturier Gallery's existence, having opened in the same space on Gallery Row in 1996 as John Cleary Gallery. The history of the gallery is a complicated one with less-than-regular milestones, but this celebration of the life and legacy of John Cleary brings us back to the very beginning.

After taking a class on collecting photography taught by Houston-legends Anne Tucker and Geoff Winningham at Rice University in the late 1970s, John Cleary purchased his first photograph: Robert Doisneau’s Le Manège de Monsieur Barré (Mr. Barré's Carousel), 1955 (as mentioned in the Houston Chronicle’s article on John’s life, published January 30, 2008).

Details of the inaugural exhibition in the gallery are somewhat unclear - John once said it was a Doisneau show, while one long-time collector remembers it as a French street photography show, and another recalls that it simply featured famous photographers. Although the specifics may be lost to history and the fallibility of memory, Catherine Couturier Gallery will present an homage to this exhibition which will feature French photographers and more, including John’s first Doisneau and the exact André Kertész print which was sold at that first show in 1996.

The gallery welcomed Catherine Couturier as Gallery Manager in 1999, who would go on to buy the gallery after the sudden passing of John in 2008. Four years later, the gallery’s name was updated as well. Although Catherine has now owned the gallery longer than he ever did, John played an unmistakably important role in both her life and in Houston’s photography scene, having founded what is now Houston’s longest running fine art photography gallery.

The exhibition will remain on display through September 5.