26 Best Sights in New York City, New York

In September 2019, Pace moved into a new eight-story building at 540 West 25th Street, turning the gallery more into an art center than just a gallery. The impressive roster of talent represented here includes a variety of upper-echelon artists, sculptors, and photographers, such as Richard Avedon, Alexander Calder, Tara Donovan, Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Rauschenberg. Pace has two spaces in Chelsea, including 510 West 25th Street.

Many Bushwick galleries showcase edgy and experimental work, but visiting this converted warehouse is an easy way to see a lot of art in one place. The BogArt houses a few galleries, including standouts M. David & Go and the Amos Eno Gallery, plus large loft studios, often with open studio viewing sessions. Gallery hours vary, but the best time to visit is on Friday and weekends, when most places are open.

The 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-century, museum-quality art inside this five-story, marble-floored French neoclassical town house tends to be big-name stuff from the Impressionism, Post-impressionism, Cubism and Surrealism movements. The gallery showcases works from well-known artists, including Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. It's best to check the website of this third-generation, family-owned gallery for individual exhibit hours, which can vary.

One of the most influential art dealers of the 20th century, Leo Castelli helped foster the careers of many important artists, including one of his first discoveries, Jasper Johns. Castelli died in 1999, but the gallery continues to show works by Roy Lichtenstein, Ed Ruscha, Frank Stella, Robert Morris, and other heavy hitters. There's a satellite gallery in the Times Square area.

Zwirner is one of the most prominent figures in the world of contemporary art, and his several galleries around the world show multimedia work by big-name, Instagram-friendly artists including Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, Gordon Matta-Clark, Yayoi Kusama, and Alice Neel. The sleek, modern building on 20th Street has two floors of exhibition space, and there's a complex of buildings on West 19th Street a block away, as well as another gallery on the Upper East Side.

The impressive stable of 20th-century photographers represented and shown here includes Sally Mann, Robert Polidori, Bill Brandt, Lalla Essaydi, Herb Ritts, Mona Kuhn, and Elliott Erwitt. The gallery also has prints by masters Dorothea Lange and Diane Arbus. Along with focusing on vintage photographs from 1917 to 1939, the gallery has extended to featuring an exclusive circle of contemporary photographers such as Annie Leibovitz.

This internationally renowned modern gallery has two large Chelsea branches (the other is at  522 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues) as well as three galleries on the Upper East Side and more than 10 outposts in cities around the world. Perhaps the most powerful dealer in the business, Gagosian Gallery shows works by heavy hitters such as Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Urs Fischer, Richard Serra, and pop-art icon Roy Lichtenstein, in addition to less well-known artists.

If you are looking for ambitious works by the world's most acclaimed artists in a gallery that easily competes with the city's top museums, you have to visit Gagosian. Perhaps the most powerful art dealer in the world, Larry Gagosian has galleries in Beverly Hills, London, Paris, Rome, Athens, and Hong Kong, among other cities, as well as multiple galleries in New York City. The 980 Madison Avenue location, the contemporary art empire's headquarters, is a multifloor gallery that has shown works by big names like Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, and Damien Hirst.

The challenging installations at this large gallery feature works by mid-career and established artists. Look for art by Yoko Ono, Alfredo Jaar, Andy Goldsworthy, Jaume Plensa, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Tariku Shiferaw, and Petah Coyne.

The international roster of artists at this gallery's two large Chelsea locations includes painter Ahmed Alsoudani, sculptor Anish Kapoor, photographer Sharon Lockhart, and multimedia artists Matthew Barney and Cecilia Edefalk. The other gallery is at  530 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.

The vast 36,000-square-foot space is an ideal venue for sprawling exhibits and large-scale art projects, unlike its narrow Upper East Side town house or spare SoHo space. Some of the contemporary artists, both established and emerging, include Amy Sherald, George Condo, Cindy Sherman, and Mark Bradford.

This space is home to two galleries—Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Hirschl & Adler Modern. The galleries focus on American and European paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture from the 18th through the early-20th centuries. The latter differs by specializing in modernist, postwar, and contemporary works.

Run by Kathy Grayson, the art-world It girl and former director of the highly influential Deitch Projects, this contemporary-arts gallery usually hosts several shows a month. The artists lean more toward the up-and-coming rather than the establishment, and it's pretty much always worth stopping in to the space for a short but entertaining stroll.

After being established in 1984 in Washington, D.C., the Jack Shainman Gallery moved to New York's East Village and then SoHo, landing in Chelsea in 1997. The original 20th Street space has recently been augmented by a massive TriBeCa gallery on Lafayette Street as well as a vast former schoolhouse in New York's Hudson Valley. The galleries all show emerging and established artists such as Nick Cave, El Anatsui, Carrie Mae Weems, Tallur L. N., and Kerry James Marshall.

This mezzanine-level gallery represents some lofty artists. In addition to tapestries by modern masters like Joan Miró, Sonia Delaunay, and Alexander Calder, this gallery's specialties include works by late-19th- and early-20th-century modern artists like Fernand Leger and Marc Chagall. It is also one of the first gallery dealers for Pablo Picasso's ceramics in the United States. There's also an exhibition space in the neighborhood at  330 East 59th Street. Check the website for seasonal hours.

Perhaps the most respected contemporary art dealer in town, the Marian Goodman Gallery has been introducing top European artists to American audiences since 1977. The stable of excellent contemporary artists in the Goodman fold includes Gerhard Richter, Jeff Wall, John Baldessari, William Kentridge, Chantal Akerman, and Steve McQueen.

The gallery has an international reputation, representing modern artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Beverly Pepper, and Red Grooms; architect Santiago Calatrava; and photo-realist Richard Estes. Look for sculptures by Tom Otterness, whose whimsical bronzes are found in several subway stations. A Chelsea branch specializes in contemporary art.

Contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and video works by an impressive array of international artists are on display in this light-filled space with high ceilings and a seasonal sculpture garden. Among the artists are Viola Frey, known for her heroic-scale ceramic male and female figures, and a strong group of young artists embarking on their first solo shows.

The first Black-owned gallery in New York, Nicola Vassell swung open its doors in May 2021 to great fanfare in the art world. The gallery's focus is on discourse that widens the lens of history and about the future of art with exhibitions by a diverse group of international artists. The space shows a cross-discipline of works using the mediums of film, painting, sculpture, and video installations.

SoHo pioneer Paula Cooper moved to Chelsea in 1996 and, after moving her masterpieces around the neighborhood, has finally settled into a stark-white, high-ceilinged space that's perfect for viewing art. There are now two galleries (the other is at  521 West 21st Street) that showcase the works of artists such as Carl Andre, Sam Durant, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin.

This gallery, first opened in the East Village in 1984 and open in TriBeCa since 2013, shows new and established conceptual artists of all ages. Postmasters exhibits both young and established artists working in all media, though it seeks out new forms of creative expression that are reflective of the current time.

Run by the Roosevelt Island Visual Arts Association, this gallery helps to promote works by its 30 artist members through group and solo exhibitions, and other programming. Along with this gallery, the RIVAA manages another exhibition space, the Octagon Gallery within the Octagon Building, once the entrance of a hospital that's now part of an apartment complex. The latter spot features art by both RIVAA members and international guest contributors—including painters, sculptors, photographers, computer artists, graphic designers, ceramists, and installation artists.

Founded by artists in 1928 to exhibit innovative contemporary work, SculptureCenter occupies a former trolley repair shop that was renovated by artist Maya Lin in 2002 and expanded by Andrew Berman Architect in 2014; it's not far from MoMA PS1. Indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces close between shows; see the website for details or call ahead before visiting.

The transformation of an industrial boiler house into an edgy arts compound is quintessential DUMBO. This 12,000-square-foot structure now hosts large-scale avant-garde exhibitions and runs a prestigious residency program. Don't be surprised if you pass a smartphone-clutching event planner on your way in; it's also a popular wedding venue.

With two floors of exhibition space, the shows here can spread out. Look for innovative modern work in a variety of media, by the likes of Olafur Eliasson, Uta Barth, Ernesto Neto, Lisa Oppenheim, and Sarah Sze, who represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale.

The gallery, located in a historic town house on a tree-lined street, features a vast collection of works by contemporary artists from the era of World War II up to the present. Van Doren Waxter represents Caetano de Almeida, Marsha Cottrell, and Farid Haddad, among other artists, while handling secondary market work by Georgia O'Keeffe, Lee Krasner, Roy Lichtenstein, and other revered names.