On any given day, it’s easy to drive past Storage Space. Nestled on East 34th Street, not far from Shortridge High School, the art gallery is indistinguishable from the other houses. That is, unless the garage door is open.
On the third Friday of each month, the garage door opens and guests can find paintings, performance art, sculptures and installations. Oftentimes, these shows include food from local chefs. These nights remind artist and Storage Space founder Brent Lehker — a 2010 Herron School of Art and Design alum, sculptor and furniture designer — of how he used to spend First Fridays on Massachusetts Avenue, hopping from gallery to gallery and getting fed.
Robinson-Gay curated and performed in “The Best of You…,” at Storage Space Gallery on July 7, 2023. Credit: Provided photo/Cole Wilgus 
Robinson-Gay curated and performed in “The Best of You…,” at Storage Space Gallery on July 7, 2023. Credit: Provided photo/Cole Wilgus 
Morgan Robinson-Gay, a performance artist, at Storage Space Gallery on July 7, 2023. Credit: Provided photo/Cole Wilgus
Storage Space will also host a New Year’s Eve Silver Soiree Fundraiser from 8 to 11:59 p.m. The goal is to raise money for the artist live/work space next door. Tickets start at $29 for the event, which will have a lounge room, food, Photo Booth, body paint, dancing and silvery art.
Opened in 2018, the gallery is a labor of love for Lehker. Artists — many of whom are Herron students, alumni or faculty — never pay a dime to have their work exhibited at Storage Space.
“I’m an artist, so it’s like this romantic thing to want to be there for the artist,” Lehker said. “I wanted to be able to say that I’ve never taken commissions from an artist down the road, thinking I would become a nonprofit and apply for grants. We are a nonprofit now, but I am the suckiest grant writer, so it’s a bad business model,” he added with a laugh.
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‘The only place I can think of that would let me be a little insane.’
Despite these self-proclaimed shortcomings when it comes to getting grants, artists who have exhibited at and frequent Storage Space are grateful for what the space provides.
Morgan Robinson-Gay, a performance artist, works with metal and fire, and performed at the BUTTER art fair 2022. She lives nearby and tries to make it to every show. “This place is the only place I can think of that would let me be a little insane,” she says.
A gallery like Storage Space, she said, gives artists the freedom to experiment and be their most authentic selves. Last July, Robinson-Gay curated and performed in “The Best of You…,” a show that critiques a culture in which artists feel the worth of their work is determined by its profitability, at Storage Space.
“For artists, when you see someone making art that’s not about profit, but telling stories, that lets them know that they can, too,” Robinson-Gay said.
“A lot of times a gallery can be hoity-toity and unapproachable for some people,” Lehker said.
Since opening Storage Space, Lehker joined the Mapleton/Fall Creek neighborhood board to learn more about the community and, admittedly, to help navigate any potential problems community members might have had with a house gallery opening on their street.
Before long, the board started meeting at Storage Space, and many neighbors visit the gallery during shows. Lehker said he hopes Storage Space helps his neighbors — and anyone who visits — explore kinds of art they may not typically seek out.
The founders of Storage Space Gallery Michelle McGuire, 47, and Brent Lehker, 49. Credit: Mikaela Helane for Mirror Indy 
Two pieces by artist Gautam Rao wait to be hung up at Storage Space Gallery for the upcoming exhibit “Smorgasbord” on Sunday, April 14, 2024, in Indianapolis. The show opening is April 19, from 6 to 10 p.m. Credit: Mikaela Helane for Mirror Indy 
Co-curators Danielle Joy Graves uninstalls the previous exhibit. Credit: Mikaela Helane for Mirror Indy 
Kevin Angell surrounded by some of the art waiting to be hung up. Credit: Mikaela Helane for Mirror Indy 
Kevin Angell (left) and Nick Witten install art piece “Brazilian Chef” by artist Rafael “Rafiki” Caro. Credit: Mikaela Helane for Mirror Indy
‘Every city needs a tool library’
Along with Storage Space, Lehker is working to support creatives with a free tool library called Bottom Level Toolshop (BLT). Inspired by a similar model in Baltimore, Lehker’s growing tool library gives community members the ability to “check out” a tool they need to do renovations, art, or any other project.
Lehker is working with neighbors Kayla Bledsoe and Will Nation to grow the tool library. Although BLT is still in the early stages, Lehker is optimistic about what kind of resource it will be.
“Every city needs a tool library. If we got a tool that went out three times and it broke, I would consider that a success,” Lehker said.
Lehker hopes to be able to hire a “librarian” to help with the tool library, which could allow the gallery to be open to the public more often throughout the month.
[Make sure to visit as many of our favorite art galleries as you can.]
Storage Space on wheels?
Because Lehker is also an artist, he took a step back from curation to focus on the tool library and his own artwork. Danielle Graves and Nick Witten, founders of Sugar Space Productions, which existed as a house gallery from 2017-2018 in the South Village neighborhood, took over guest curation in April of last year.
Lehker will take over curation of the space again in August, and he has a lot of big ideas. He’s considered making Storage Space an artist’s residency, and turning the decommissioned school bus parked on the property into an “arts bus,” a mobile art gallery to take to areas without much access to the arts.
Currently, Storage Space is open during scheduled galleries on the third Friday of each month and by appointment. For more information on Storage Space and BLT, click here.
Mirror Indy reporter Breanna Cooper covers arts and culture. Email her at Breanna.cooper@mirrorindy.org.
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