Groundbreaking Texas Art Dealer Leaves a Lasting Legacy — Remembering Anya Tish, a True Friend to So Many Artists

PaperCity pays tribute to the late Anya Tish, one of Texas’ most respected gallerists, a visionary dealer who’s played a significant role in Houston’s closeknit art scene ever since she first opened her gallery 28 years ago. Three artists, a curator/nonprofit director and this arts writer remember the unforgettable Tish. 

As PaperCity’s July/August print magazine issue went to press, word arrived that Houston gallerist Anya Tish had passed away in her hometown of Kraków, Poland, while on holiday, at age 74. (You can read Anya Tish’s full obituary here.) 

Anya (it’s hard to call her Tish) was a maverick art dealer with a conceptual, challenging program that also highlighted buoyant and optimistic abstraction. She was always a risk taker, one of the first Texas dealers to showcase artists working in new technology — Swiss multimedia artist Katja Loher, Houston-based lady of luminesce Adela Andea — as well as a staunch champion of talents who defied easy categorization. The great obsessive H.J. Bott comes to mind, with his exacting DoV principle, as well as Neva Mikulicz of the meticulous, cheeky-retro drawings, and Suzette Mouchaty’s Pop yet scientific sea-slug sculptures.

Known for her unerring eye in hanging shows, adventuresome aesthetic and ability to identify important artists early on, Tish was the first to exhibit Core Fellow Gabriel Martinez’s repurposed post-Harvey textile paintings and Moroccan photographer Lalla Essaydi’s calligraphy-imprinted images for FotoFest.

An immigrant, Anya Tish embraced diversity in selecting artists for her stable, possessing a humanistic sensitivity as the child of Holocaust survivors. She showed Gao Hang’s smart, neo-Pop canvases that address the cultural dislocation of a Chinese-born artist in Houston, and, now on view, the politically charged “The ‘I’ in Immigration” series by Houston painter Tatiana Escallón, a Colombian immigrant. Tish was always been mindful of current socio-political causes including supporting those in the Ukraine via a 2022 fundraiser her Anya Tish Gallery organized. 

Anya Tish, who opened her gallery in 1996, was among the seminal art dealers who built the Houston art scene as we know it over the course of three decades.

Fiercely independent, she forged a program at her original 1740 Sunset Boulevard location that segued over the years from works on paper and printmaking by European artists (which reflected her early background at master print dealer Gerhard Wurzer Gallery) to more avant-garde fare. A decade later, Tish was one of the founding dealers when the 4411 Montrose Gallery Building opened in 2005.

But beyond all this, she was greatly beloved, known for her upbeat personality, unique style, warmth and commitment to artists who became like family to the gallerist and her husband of more than 50 years Mark Tish (an HISD high school teacher with a Ph.D. in math).

Personally, Tish played a huge role in my own world, She was the first dealer who reached out to this fledgling arts journalist during my Public News days in the mid 1990s. Our nearly 30-year friendship encompassed innumerable dialogues, dinners and adventures including a jaunt to the art fairs in Miami one year. Tish and her gallery were also one of the staunchest supporters of our 2010 book Texas Artists Today, stocking and gifting numerous copies and co-hosting a book signing at 4411 Montrose.

However, the silver lining here is that Anya Tish’s legacy and the gallery — one of the foundational art spaces at the 4411 Montrose Gallery Building and for the entire Houston arts community — continue. Anya Tish Gallery director Dawn Ohmer, whose vision has been honed by five years working alongside her mentor, will keep the art gallery open, to support and showcase the artists Tish has discovered and they have exhibited collectively together.

Ohmer tells PaperCity that the outpouring of support has been extraordinary. She has received more than 1,000 emails, texts and calls from artists, collectors and friends of the gallery offering condolences and tributes to Anya Tish. 

PaperCity reached out to four key associates of Anya Tish, for their own remembrances: 

Jennie Ash, Art League Houston Executive Director

“I was deeply saddened to learn of Anya Tish’s unexpected passing. Anya was a significant figure in the Texas art community and a profound influence in my life. She was one of the first people I met in Houston and helped me discover my love for working with artists and introduced me to many folks who I am lucky to now call friends.

“Her fearless passion for visual arts was infectious, and her strong vision was palpable to anyone around her. After working with her for several years when I first moved to Houston in 2009, her guidance and support helped shape the person I am today. Anya’s spirit and legacy live on in the countless lives she touched, including mine.”

HJ Bott, Artist

“What was important was Anya believed in my work when I didn’t. I was so worried I was just making work for a market and Anya showed me differently. We’re already missing Anya sooooo much.”