The Galleries

The dominant force in the blue-chip market, with a museum-scale program. A new street-level gallery opened this April at 980 Madison; the original 555 West 24th remains the Chelsea white-cube standard. This summer: Anselm Kiefer on West 24th, Helen Frankenthaler on West 21st, and a Rauschenberg drawn from the Cy Twombly Foundation at Madison.

The most consistently ambitious gallery program in New York, across four locations. The Selldorf-designed flagship at 537 West 20th hosts Gerhard Richter alongside Jasper Johns; on West 19th, Lisa Yuskavage. The Walker Street space in Tribeca and the 69th Street townhouse round out a sweeping summer.

Pace’s eight-story Chelsea headquarters is one of the most ambitious gallery buildings in the city. The marquee summer exhibition is David Hockney’s Moon Room — iPad paintings made during quarantine in Normandy — alongside Emily Kam Kngwarray’s first major New York show, Julian Schnabel, and Paul Thek.

The 36,000-square-foot Selldorf-designed building on 22nd Street operates more like a kunsthalle than a commercial gallery — free, museum-quality, consistently substantial. Italian outsider Carol Rama’s I See You You See Me runs alongside Dominican-American painter Firelei Báez.

After four decades in midtown, Marian Goodman moved her flagship into the restored 1875 Grosvenor Building in Tribeca in late 2024 — five floors, cast-iron façade and exposed brick intact. The roster is one of the deepest in the world (Tacita Dean, Steve McQueen, Julie Mehretu, William Kentridge); the building itself is worth the visit.

The Toshiko Mori–designed 22,000-square-foot Hudson Yards space remains one of the most architecturally distinguished galleries in New York. The program runs to Marina Abramović, Joseph Kosuth, Candida Höfer, and Mariko Mori.

The townhouse gallery of three of the most influential dealers in the secondary market, in a discreet limestone building off Fifth Avenue. Connoisseurship-driven exhibitions of twentieth-century masters and select contemporary; appointments encouraged but not required.

Luhring Augustine’s Bushwick satellite is a serious extension of the Chelsea blue-chip — a single, deep program of long-running exhibitions. Amant, Lonti Ebers’s 25,000-square-foot Herzog & de Meuron–designed campus, runs a nonprofit program of substantial commissioned exhibitions across four interconnected buildings.

The original 555 West 24th Street space set the white-cube standard the rest of Chelsea followed. With 541 West 24th and West 21st also operating, Gagosian is best treated as a tour rather than a single stop. Summer brings Anselm Kiefer’s Seal My Ears Shut and Helen Frankenthaler’s The Moment and the Distance.

Three Chelsea buildings on adjacent blocks mounting four to five concurrent exhibitions. This summer: Gerhard Richter and Jasper Johns on 20th Street, Lisa Yuskavage on 19th.

The eight-story headquarters functions as a kunsthalle with multiple concurrent shows. Hockney’s Moon Room runs all summer; the adjacent 508 and 510 West 25th hold Emily Kam Kngwarray’s first major New York show alongside Julian Schnabel and Paul Thek.

Free, museum-quality, the most consistently substantial exhibitions in the district. The Selldorf building on 22nd Street runs Carol Rama and Firelei Báez side by side; the smaller 18th Street space holds Philip Guston through July 10.

Two strong mid-tier programs on West 24th worth pairing with the larger Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth visits next door. Lehmann Maupin shows Catherine Opie and Erwin Wurm this spring; Galerie Lelong is one of the city’s most reliable venues for serious Latin American and conceptual programs.

A few blocks south of the main Chelsea drag, Taggart specializes in post-war American art and works with serious collectors of the secondary market. Less spectacle than the megagalleries; more depth of conversation if you stop in.

The first museum in the United States dedicated to the global history of posters, in a beautifully designed two-story space. Two strong main exhibitions: Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen, and Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS. First Fridays bring free admission and extended hours to nine p.m.

Founded in 1974, the premier U.S. exhibition space for book art and printmaking. Two simultaneous shows: Rewriting the World on the postwar French Lettrist movement, and Shatter / Chatter, the abstract comics of Rosaire Appel. The gallery shares space with an active working studio.

The exhibition space of Baruch College’s Weissman School — a serious academic gallery with a long-running program of consistently thoughtful, well-curated shows. Worth checking what’s on.

A 131-year-old nonprofit founded by suffragist Grace Seton, dedicated to female artists and writers and to changing the marketplace they work within — serious group and solo shows in a handsome East 22nd Street townhouse.

Founded in 2013 by graphic designer and publisher Katie Michel, Planthouse is at once a gallery, a press, and a print studio. Programming is sharp and contemporary, focused on emerging and mid-career artists.

Two worthwhile small galleries. The Old Print Shop has been family-owned since 1898, dealing in historical American prints and antiquarian maps — essential for serious collectors, fascinating for browsers. Evey Fine Art curates contemporary exhibitions from the Americas and Europe, with a particular focus on Cuban artists.