Even during his childhood, native Houstonian Lloyd Gite recalls having pretty good taste. In his grade school years, the burgeoning young aesthete remembers putting his artistic inclinations to use by helping his mother select paint colors for the rooms of their Houston home. Connoisseurship, especially when it’s been cultivated since childhood, is hard to let slip, so it makes sense that all these years later Gite spends his days running one of the most unique art galleries in Houston.

Since 2002, Gite Gallery in Third Ward has specialized in art from Sub-Saharan Africa, and in particular from West Africa—from paintings to sculptures and masks—exhibited in a nearly century-old home off Alabama. There’s no other space like it in Houston, which has made Gite Gallery the go-to spot for both Houstonians and visitors alike who are interested in purchasing African art. Gite, who spent around 25 years working as a TV reporter before transitioning full-time to the art biz, has developed a solid list of celebrity clients through the years, from athletes like T.J. Ford and Vince Young to actor Danny Glover and even Tina Knowles (a.k.a Beyoncé’s mom).

Upon entering Gite Gallery, you’re immediately cued in that this isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill, white-walled art space. The gallery sports a decidedly homey vibe, and the walls of its many rooms are painted in lively shades of red, yellow, orange, and green. “I didn’t want white walls. Every room has a different color,” Gite says. “I wanted people to be able to walk in and say that it really does feel like a house.”

Throughout the maximalist space hang large-scale paintings from artists like Maxwell Boadi of Ghana and Nigerian artists Raji Ade David and Ismail Zubair. Intermixed with the vibrant paintings, an eclectic assemblage of wooden statues and masks are all arranged together with the kind of effortlessness that only results from careful composition.

It’s a space ripe for exploration, whether you’re on the hunt for new art for your collection or simply wanting to sup in all the cheerful vignettes.

Start your journey at the gallery’s central stairwell. A towering Chiwara, an antelope figure from Mali, holds court in front of two smaller pieces of female portraiture. Tucked inside the stairwell is a kaleidoscopic collage painting of a young woman crafted from acrylic and multi-patterned fabric by Raji Ade David.

After journeying to the top of the stairs, you’ll find a large painting of a child in a yellow dress by Maxwell Boadi next to a red-faced Guro mask from Côte d'Ivoire, which itself sits just above a pedestal on which a beaded Yoruba basket from Nigeria rests. In every room of the home-turned-art-gallery, you’ll find similar groupings: In one room, Fang and Punu masks from Gabon, with their white-painted and (in the case of the Fang) elongated faces, hang beside a colorful array of paintings. In another, a large wooden sculpture from Nigeria sits in artful repose atop a circular table, surrounded by walls awash with eye-catching canvases. It’s easy to get lost in the space.

This thoughtful curation is the result of over 35 trips Gite has taken through the years to Africa, a continent he’s been curious about for most of his life. “As a child, I was always fascinated with Africa—don’t ask me why I was fascinated with that,” he says. “The first opportunity I got to go to Africa, I did, which was in 1976.”

Gite brought a lot of items back with him from that first trip—souvenirs like paintings and masks. When he showed them off to his friends, they shared in his enthusiasm, and a handful asked if he could bring back some pieces for them after his next trip. That one trip soon grew to half a dozen, then a full dozen, laying the groundwork for the gallery he runs today. While Gite—who spent 18 years as an on-air reporter for KRIV-TV in Houston and was a Texas correspondent for Black Entertainment Television (BET) for over a decade—was still working in television during these early years, through word of mouth he was able to slowly build up a list of clientele for his art services.

“I was selling art out of my house and going to Africa as often as I could,” he remembers. “That started financing my trips, so it was a win-win situation.”

Gite’s transition from part-time art dealer to full-time gallery owner happened after new management took over the Fox station where he was working. When new leadership comes in, layoffs are bound to happen, and Gite, who had already started to tire of broadcast journalism by that point, found his job on the chopping block. “My last day on the job, I got on a plane to Africa and I never looked back,” he says. 

He’s been traveling back and forth between Africa and Houston ever since. Although Gite used to visit the continent at least twice a year on trips that would often stretch close to a month, that started to change when the economy got shaky in 2008 and then, of course, when the pandemic hit. Although he’s scaled back on the frequency and the length of his visits, his expertise in finding art in the countries he frequents means he can do quite a bit of collecting and networking in the span of a week. 

Gite mainly goes to Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, but he says he’s planning on going back to Senegal soon. He also sometimes travels to Nigeria. Although his most recent trip was to South Africa, a visit that took him to Cape Town, he says that West Africa is the region that fascinates him the most. “It resonates with me. I just think that they have some of the best art out there,” he says of the region, before adding that he thinks Nigeria is going to become the next international art market. “They have such great pieces. They’re expensive, but it’s great work.”

Gite has built up a pretty solid network of people in the countries he frequents, and those relationships have been central to the health of his gallery. When he’s not stopping by a gallery or the home of an artist, he goes to markets to do some exploration. Sometimes he’ll end up finding a hidden gem there or discover someone he hasn’t heard of who’s doing wonderful paintings. From there, he’ll build a mutually beneficial relationship with the artist. 

“Not only does this art help me, but it helps the artists themselves. We’re able to help put food on their tables,” he says. “In some of these countries, they don’t get paid a lot of money to do what they’re doing, so I’m able to help them out.”

With his gallery celebrating its 22nd anniversary this year, Gite has now spent more time as a gallery owner in Houston than he spent here as a TV reporter. Looking back, he says he’s amazed at his life’s journey—from young boy with discerning tastes to successful TV journalist and gallery owner stocking Beyoncé’s mom’s house with art.

“Despite the fact that I’m not a businessman and am a former TV journalist, I’m running a pretty successful art gallery,” he says. “I’m surprised at that. I’m not surprised at how my level of taste in terms of art has grown.”