The dynamic husband and wife duo Helen Toomer and Chris Labzda opened their first gallery “toomer labzda” on Forsyth Street in the Lower East Side of New York this June.

The gallery is comprised of only around 200 square feet but this combined with its white walls and light wood floors make it intimate, chic and sexy. As a long sparse rectangle with a glass façade that faces the street, the gallery is ideal for an emerging artist who wants to experiment or test out their ideas on a New York audience. The gallery’s area of interest is “sculptural”, looking at all mediums of work that explore ideas of shape and form. Helen describes their vision, “We want to work directly with emerging artists and create a platform to showcase their work -putting them into the hands of curators, dealers and collectors. This isn’t a ground breaking or revolutionary idea, but something we both feel very passionately about – enough to open in a recession!”

written by Claire Breukel

The Lower East Side is home to more than 50 galleries, and is described as a “traditionally an immigrant, working class neighborhood that has undergone rapid gentrification into a “hipster” neighborhood in recent years, prompting The National Trust for Historic Preservation to place the neighborhood on their list of America’s Most Endangered Places” (Wikipedia) Part of this gentrification can certainly be attributed to the presence of galleries showing not only local, but international artists as well.

In this vein toomer labzda’s first exhibition featured British artist Mia Taylor who created a series of drawings and three-dimensional wall reliefs out of plastic, timber, florescent acrylics and watercolor paint on paper. Toomer and Taylor first met years ago in London and a studio visits steadily developed into a firm understanding Taylor’s process and use of materials. This peaked Helen and Chris’ interest, so much, they offered her a solo show, the inaugural exhibition to open their gallery. This June, the opening attracted an art savvy audience that literally packed the space from wall to wall.

As a follow on the second toomer labzda exhibition will feature as solo project by New York artist Joe Brittain entitled Amp that explores interaction between science and nature and which will culminate in a series of site-specific sculptures and drawings. If you are in New York, the exhibition opens September 1st through October 2nd, with a reception for the artist on Wednesday, September 7th: 6pm – 9pm – a big night for all the gallery openings in the LES (Lower East Side).

Chris and Helen come from different backgrounds but bring to the gallery their individual areas of strength. Chris graduated with an MFA at Goldsmiths in London, he teaches and works as a photographer and is the Director of Operations for a new Masters in Fashion Photography at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. Toomer studied Fine Art, but chose to follow a different route, focusing with the organizational side of exhibitions. Since then she has built an impressive career, previously working with the PULSE art fair, building art media as well as forging institutional partnerships across the globe. Chris and Helen make an ideal creative, business and marketing team and their layered experience of the international art world gives them insight into what an emerging artist needs to bolster their career.

Toomer concludes, “Owning a gallery had always been a dream of mine and Chris’ and we couldn’t have done it without each other. Our commitment to artists, their practice and ideas, is an inherent passion and driving force for the gallery.”

to visit the website of the gallery:
toomer labzda

Claire Breukel is a Contemporary art curator and writer based in New York and Miami. She is interested in artwork that falls out of conventional modes of exhibition.