the top 7art galleries in nyc
With a thriving fine art scene, NYC is an art hotspot with approximately 1,500 art galleries located throughout the city! The majority of art galleries are clustered in pockets of Chelsea, the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, and SoHo, so I would choose one neighborhood to start with, and explore from there. (You will easily find other galleries in the area as they are all on the same block or the next streets over.) Below are 7 of the best art galleries in New York City.
chelsea
This contemporary art gallery also has a location in LA, and was founded over 26 years ago by Tanya Bonakder. They are currently home to one of the coolest exhibits I’ve seen - Olafur Eliasson’s Your Ocular Relief, which is on view through April 24th. This is Eliasson’s 11th show with the gallery!
chelsea + upper east side
You may have heard of David Zwirner when they housed the infamous Yayoi Kusama exhibit in 2019, and 2+ hour lines formed around the block of eager hopefuls wishing to capture their 30-second Instagram shot in Kusama’s infinity mirrors’ exhibit. But they have other interesting exhibits as well, in their multi-level space. Appointments are optional and not required.
lower east side
Founded in 2014, this three-story space was one of the first art galleries in LES neighborhood. Since then, they have showcased a variety of artists from around the world and successfully placed works by many of those artists in museum collections around the world.
lower east side
This global gallery has locations around the world. I first found out about them when I stumbled upon their location in the Marais neighborhood in Paris. A multi-level exhibition space with plenty of room to showcase artists, Perrotin is one of the best galleries to visit in the city. Their bookstore located next door to the gallery is also worth checking out.
chelsea
I saw one of the most memorable exhibits ever at Galerie Lelong in 2019. Krzysztof Wodiczko’s A House Divided… explored political polarization through the use of “interrogative design”. Viewers walked through a dimly lit room filled only with two monumental statues of two Abraham Lincolns sitting facing each other. Video projections and voice recordings of Staten Island citizens expressing their political views are overlaid over the two Lincoln’s faces, hands, and feet, giving off the disconcerting effect of the two statues engaging in intense political discourse with each other. While this exhibit is unfortunately no longer on view, the gallery has plenty of other thought-provoking artists and exhibitions on view. They also have another location in Paris.
chelsea + upper east side
The Chelsea location of Hauser & Wirth is one of my favorite galleries in the city. The bookstore and cafe (Roth Bar, a supremely artsy cafe in the back filled with an eclectic mix of colorful string lights, old television sets, and melted candles), add to the gallery experience. With rooms upon rooms upon rooms of art, Hauser & Wirth has an expansive space that will be the perfect spot to spend a wonderful afternoon in.
Check out websites like Artnet and NY Art Beat for a comprehensive list of current exhibitions, gallery openings/closings, and more happenings in the NYC art world.