There Are No Random Knickknacks at This Dollar Store

After noticing the lack of spaces where design and art could exist at the same time, Zoe Alexander Fisher turned a thesis project on functionality into a full-time endeavor. "I really wanted a place where there was experimentation," the curator says. When she discovered a vacant storefront in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that was formerly a 99-cent store, she worked with Simran Johnston and Riley Strom to turn it into a 3-in-1 space that holds 99¢ Plus, a gallery; HANDJOB Gallery//Store, a design shop; and a studio.

After noticing the lack of spaces where design and art could exist at the same time, Zoe Alexander Fisher turned a thesis project on functionality into a full-time endeavor. "I really wanted a place where there was experimentation," the curator says. When she discovered a vacant storefront in Bushwick, Brooklyn, formerly a 99-cent store, she worked with Simran Johnston and Riley Strom to turn it into a 3-in-1 space that holds 99¢ Plus, a gallery; HANDJOB Gallery//Store, a design shop; and a studio.

Inside HANDJOB, named for its mission to give artists a forum to make money with their hands, visitors can find a range of items that cost anywhere from $2 to $400, like cup or a vase that Alexander Fisher says is "handmade in some incredible way," to jewelry, clothing, or books. For a recent 99¢ Plus exhibition, she asked participants, who included both emerging and established artists and designers, to create an object that riffed on light. The results were vast, and ranged from a $250 potted-plant lamp to a $2,700 kinetic lamp. "I’m giving all these artists design as a task, and it opens them up for experimentation. They’re able to come up with things that they’re not normally thinking about in their practice," she explains.

At HANDJOB, one might find a design object by an artist who normally sells art for tens of thousands of dollars for just $300. It’s a way for designers to create a sustainable income, and one that opens the conversation about design to a wider audience. "That makes it so much more accessible—not just something that’s going to live on the white wall of a gallery, but really be able to enter the homes of other people and be used daily," she says.