If you’ve taken a stroll around the neighborhood lately—perhaps at the most recent Art Walk?—you might have noticed a new addition to the block of Haight Street between Fillmore and Webster: Luggage Store Projects at 457 Haight.
Darryl Smith and his partner Laurie Lazer officially opened the new gallery earlier this year, and are now featuring an exhibit by artist duo t.w.five called “Automoton X.”
Smith and Lazer have been fixtures on the San Francisco art scene since at least the late ‘80s, when they founded The Luggage Store in the Tenderloin at 509 Ellis Street (hence why it’s also known as The 509 Cultural Center) as a home for their non-profit multidisciplinary arts organization. Around that same time, they began transforming the alley adjacent to The Luggage Store with greenery, murals on all sides, and a variety of community-oriented events. The alley was eventually leased for $1.00 a year by Smith and Lazer, and dubbed The Tenderloin National Forest.
These days, the 509 Ellis location is known as The Luggage Store Annex, because the main Luggage Store gallery has relocated to 1007 Market Street. However, that Market Street location has temporarily closed for structural upgrades that include building a second-floor exhibition space, which is why Smith and Lazer have launched Luggage Store Projects in the Lower Haight.
Smith tells Hoodline that the plan is to “do projects really intensely for the next four months while the mid-Market gallery is under construction.” But he and Lazer haven’t ruled out keeping 457 Haight as a permanent Luggage Store space for highlighting emerging artists and curators “if it’s really well received—which, so far, it has been,” Smith says.
In addition to the gallery in the storefront facing the street, there’s also a full apartment in the back, which is where Smith currently lives. He had the living space open as an extra hangout space during the recent Lower Haight Art Walk. There’s also a basement that Smith regularly lets artists use as a studio space and plans to use for hosting musician and artist residencies in the future—complete with another full apartment for the resident artist to crash in, if so desired.
Throughout the building, there are paintings and sculptures by artists like Jack Leamy, Iona Rozeal Brown, and Ferris Plock—all from Smith and Lazer’s personal collection.
You can currently check out the vibrantly colorful pieces t.w.five created for their "Automoton X" show, which the artists say is a comment on “how technology copies human behavior and vice versa.” Automoton X runs through the end of the month, but Smith likes to leave the lights on late into the night sometimes, just so the artwork he’s bringing to the space helps brighten the Lower Haight.
