KLOMPCHING GALLERY is delighted to announce the launch of its newly renovated, street-level space with a celebration of the artwork of HELEN SEAR.

An opening reception was held on June 17, 6pm-8pm. 

After 7+ successful years at its 111 Front Street location, the gallery announced earlier in the year, its plan to move to a new location within the same neighborhood of DUMBO. Klompching Gallery has now relocated to 89 Water Street, with the new gallery space situated in an historic building—originally designed and built in 1906, for the Robert Gair Company—and flanked on two sides by the Empire Stores, famously photographed by Berenice Abbott. 

The relocation sees the gallery move from an upper floor space to street level, bringing increased visibility and foot traffic to its exhibitions of exceptional contemporary fine art photography.  

The move has been facilitated by Two Trees Management, which has a long history of investing in the arts and culture of DUMBO. The internal design of the space, with its soaring ceilings, is thoughtfully inspired by the rich history of the building—one of New York’s first buildings to utilize reinforced concrete in its structure.

The gallery launches its new space with a celebration of photographic artwork by Helen Sear, currently representing Wales at the 56th Venice Biennale, with a solo exhibition in the Santa Maria Ausilliatriace. 

Helen Sear studied Fine Art at Reading University and University College London, Slade School, her practice coming to prominence in the late 1980s, when she worked primarily through installation, performance and film. Her photographic works became widely known in the 1991 British Council exhibition,De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain, which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe.

She continues to explore ideas of vision, touch, and the re-presentation of the nature of experience with particular reference to the human and animal body and her immediate environment in rural Wales and France.

“Sear is one of photography’s foremost innovators. For her the medium is one of magic as much as realism. It is never pure, fixed or entirely knowable. Each new series presents a new set of challenges that offer up her fascination with craft and our habits of looking.”—David Campany

Klompching Gallery was founded in 2007, by Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching. The gallery specializes in the sale and exhibition of fine art photography, with an international roster of established artists. The gallery became a member of AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) in 2012. It has placed artworks into several notable public museum collections, as well as private collections throughout the world.