The Invisible Dog

ID is a well-​run art space that gives local and not-​so-​local artists a chance to display their work.
Whenever I attend one of the art shows, films and or open studio evenings, it’s always packed with folks of all ages and backgrounds.
The art displayed is of quality and often times challenging.
Plus the space is just stunning with its exposed brick and roughly hewn wood. I love it when they have the «invisible dog leashes» available for visitors to pick up and pretend they are walking a make-​believe dog through its inviting floors and many rooms.

This review is for the Aesop pop up store in the front. I stopped by today to looking for replacement bottle tops, having dropped the bottles at home and needing to replace them. The woman at the store was so nice and incredibly helpful, and gave me the bottle tops for free! A wonderful product with great people at the store — I’ll be sure to swing by again!

Awesome art gallery /​performance space with ecletic and offbeat offerings. I’ve attended avant garde performances, film screenings, art openings and more here. It is truly one of the most original amazing spaces in this brooklyn nabe, which is quickly turning into one giant mall. Ahem, Lululemon, J Crew and Intermix, I’m looking at you.

This was a really cool gallery. I attended the Slow Cook Food event with my friend. We thoroughly enjoyed the art that was currently on exhibit, which was created by a 12-​year-​old boy. It was just amazing and his age showed in the work, but the work was really good and so intriguing. There was an innocence to it.
The gallery itself was very cool. It’s nice and open. There’s 2 rooms and the bar was in the back for the event. Though entry into the back room is kind of small, I like how it’s made to be secluded.

I have never been to such a cool art gallery/​event space. I was here with my husband for the Slow Cook Food Party and it was a wonderful event. The gallery is spacious and perfect for having a private party. I am not a fine arts expert but the art pieces here are very unique and interesting. Would love to come back to see more artwork one day.

We had our wedding (for 125 guests) here in late October 2012, and we feel incredibly lucky that we found Lucien and The Invisible Dog.
We used the back gallery on the first floor for our ceremony (plus the rest of the first floor for a cocktail hour), and the open third floor for the reception. Both spaces are gorgeous, with tons of windows, and we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted to set up and decorate — around the exhibit on the first floor, of course (which was super super cool).
With 125 people, the third-​floor space felt absolutely huge — we had space for a photobooth in a nook in one corner, a big bar and buffet table, a 6-​piece band, and a large dance floor.
Lucien was really generous with his time — he was available anytime we needed him before, during, and after the event, including multiple visits from our family in NY with long lists of questions leading up to the wedding, and a lot of hours on the day of the wedding.
Getting married here means handling a lot of logistics, but if you want your wedding to really be your own, and to be about as low-​budget as is possible in Brooklyn but still look spectacular, this is your place.
Please don’t pay too much attention to the earlier reviews talking about the space being too warm, as Lucien has installed a cooling system since then. He is super responsive to figuring out what people need for the space to work, and I think he’s done it.

This is a review of the venue as host for an event. NOT art gallery.
If you look at the filtered reviews its clear this place has a bit of a split personality. Quirky art gallery one day, horrible event venue the next.
I was there for 3 days and have to agree with the others who rented this space (I was an attendee, not the event organizer). The space is not quite up to par for events.
Bathrooms. They were a bit of a joke during the event. The management failed to stock them adequately. Within minutes they were all out of toilet paper. Then signs appeared telling people to put the toilet paper in the trash (an open container with no top) and not the toilet. Gross. The doors all lacked real locks and didn’t fit well so you can see out and people could probably see in. One had a window right by the toilet that faced other widows allowing people to see right in… no curtain for privacy.
As others mention, there is no AC and the signs said to keep windows closed. We opened them and management didn’t make a big deal out of it. However they clearly don’t approve of it and expect 2 small fans to cool a room with 300 people? Not gonna happen. Fans just move hot air around when it gets warm.
Being on the third floor made it hard to get around. In case of emergency… yikes. Scary thought considering there was just one narrow stairway.
A great place for strange art, terrible place for events.

The Invisible Dog is a fun, artsy addition to the neighborhood. Since its inception almost two years ago, Bergen Street has changed dramatically and, in my opinion, for the better. Other businesses have opened their doors in Bergen’s other previously empty spaces. The street has become a much safer place to walk down at night as people drink, dine, and explore art. Instead of an empty, sketchy warehouse, artists of all mediums fill the Invisible Dog’s space with their ideas. Shows are frequently free or highly affordable. ID is often busy with private functions, yet is nowhere near the «party palace» that art spaces eager to make rent become so often. Rather, they have integrated into the community. The owners frequently loan the space to local schools and nonprofits for events for free. They welcome families with young children to explore the space and open the back garden to visitors. Artists with studios there are now familiar faces. It has been a delight to peer into the windows, view new pieces, attend arts events, hang out in the garden, and chat with the many talented artists who create and display their work here. The old warehouse is used to its advantage giving the gallery a funky, bohemian, 80s Berlin air while remaining quintessentially Brooklyn.
I love the Invisible Dog and am delighted to see it bringing accessible art to my favorite neighborhood.

THE +‘s: love, love, love the huge crazy space. three floors of wood surfaces and a creaky wooden stairwell. which sounds unsafe but whatevers, it totally adds to the funky cool atmostphere. not your standard white-​walled gallery space. art displayed here gets an extra kick from all the exposed industrial textures. organic, you can say.
THE -‘s: the bathrooms are, um, EW.
SUM: i was part of a show here that featured everything from photography to interactive presentations. what’s so great about the huge space is that practically any type of art can find a comfortable niche. the show i attended included a tent setup, a bank of computers for the animation, entire walls dedicated to video projection, and interesting «nooks» for the photography to hang. truly a space that invites visitor interaction (the architecture nurd in me went SQUEE). since it’s spread out on three floors, and each floor encompassed the entire length of the building, different exhibitions were set up per floor. the building’s located near downtown brooklyn. when you get hungry, eats are just around the corner.

Went to see the Indie+ runway show by Re/​Dress NYC (around the corner!) here, so I can’t comment on what the venue must be like without a giant fashion show in it, but while I was here I loved it! The atmosphere is great, the space looks amazing, and the staff was beyond warm and friendly, looking after everybody in the room and making sure everyone was happy. I would go to any show here, and I can only hope to host at this venue myself someday!