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Free Events, Free Things to Do in New York City!  Read More
New York gives you numerous choices when you are in a mood to attend an art gallery exhibition or be a part of an exhibition opening. Some sources say that there are more than a thousand of art galleries in NYC and, of  course, you do not have time to attend them all. But the good thing is that art galleries are usually located in clusters and so if you go to one of them, there is, basically, a 100% chance that you will be able to see art works, be that paintings or photos or scupltures, in many other art galleries located just nearby, whatever neightborhood you happen to be in.

The very first neighborhood where artist lived and art galleries thrived in New York City was Grenwich Village, which boated active art scene as far back as 1850. That active art scene did last: Greenwich Village was the place where Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney opened her Whitney Studio Club Gallery in 1914, which would become the Whitney Museum for American Art (now located in Chelsea).

With immigrants pouring into the city in larger numbers than ever before at the turn of the century, the wealthy families tried to outrun their spread uptown by moving to the Upper East Side. The art galleries followed the buyers and established themselves in the neighboorhood as well.

Midtown, Grenwich Village and the Upper East Side housed most of the New York art galleries for over 100 years. Those three neighborhoods continue to house many of Manhattan art galleries. Upper East Side art galleries are located mostly in the area between Park and Fifth Aves in the mid-70s. Midtown art galleries are clustered near Fifth Avenue. Many of them are on the 57th St. They usually represent big name artists.

Early in the 1960s artists started moving into the neglected commercial lofts of the cast-iron district south of Houston Street, known as SoHo. In the 1970s and ’80s SoHo was the City’s best-known art distric. But SoHo art galleries became the victims of the neighborhood's success which they themselves have created. Before the artists moved into SoHo, the neightborhood was an array of empty factories buildings and abandoned warehouses. Artists moved in as the premises had lots of light and space, and were dirt cheap. As the artists were right there, the art galleries sprang up. The neighboorhood attarcted crowds and so retailers decided to capitalize on the cool images that SoHo have attained. They flooded the area and it made the rents go skyhigh and made the area unaffordable to the artist community. This story repeats itself in many towns and cities all over the world, and so instead of dwelling on it, let us tell you which other neighborhoods have the galleries that you may want to atend. SoHo has become more of a shopping mall than a place to see intereating art work, although about 20 galleries are still located there. 

The first place that comes to mind when one talks about the artists' and galleries' flight from SoHo is, of course, Chelsea. That's where many of SoHo galleries had to run to when the skyrocketed rent forced them to leave SoHo in the 90s. Chelsea art galleries are located between 18th and 28th Streets going South/North and between 10th and 11th Avenues going East/West. If you start there you may end staying there, as Chelsea's list of galleries has about 200 names or so.

Another gallery district is the Lower East Side, which is located east of Bowery and between Houston and Grand Streets. The galleries here usually show up and coming artists. You can see there lots of local grown art. The neighborhood is filled with inviting bars, cafes and restaurants, and with small smart clothing shops. So you can combine gallery hoping with bar hoping and with shopping for something off the beaten track.
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23 Exhibition Openings at New York Art Galleries (NYC) Mon, 05/29/2023 - and on...

There are over a thousand art galleries in New York, most of which are located in six Manhattan neighborhoods: Chelsea, SoHo, Midtown, Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, and East Village. It is almost impossible to list all the exhibition openings that take place in NYC art galleries. Here is a good sampling to start with.

        

Opening Reception | Clare Grill: At the Soft Stages


Grill’s luminous, layered compositions teeter between recognizable forms and something familiar but abstract. Her vast vocabulary of shapes, colors, and compositional choices is inspired by antique embroidery samplers, as well as highly decorated birth, baptismal, and marriage certificates from the 18th and 19th centuries. Born out of intuitive decisions which are frequently guided by natural occurrences like daylight and shadow falling across the surface, Grill’s paintings are documents of marks made with brush or with fingers, of colors added or removed. In essence, they tell the story of the artist’s process and the passage of time.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, May 31, 2023, 05/31/2023, Clare Grill: At the Soft Stages

Opening Reception | From Repression to Remembrace: The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism


The exhibition describes the tasks and activities carried out by the National Fund in areas such as Nazi victim recognition, project funding, art restitution, documenting life stories of survivors, the restoration of Jewish cemeteries in Austria, the Simon Wiesenthal Prize for outstanding civic engagement to combat antisemitism and promote Holocaust education, the renewal of the Austrian exhibition at Auschwitz, and the General Settlement Fund and its compensation and restitution for Nazi victims.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, May 31
7:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, May 31, 2023, 05/31/2023, From Repression to Remembrace: The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism

Opening Reception | 2 Exhibitions: A Greater Beauty / This Is Not All There Is


A Greater Beauty: The Drawings of Kahlil Gibran will feature over one hundred drawings by the prolific Lebanese-American artist, poet and essayist, and coincides with the 100th anniversary of Gibran’s world-renowned publication The Prophet. Though best known for his poetry and prose, Gibran viewed himself equally as a visual artist, producing paintings, watercolors, sketches, illustrations, book covers, and other material as a complement to his written work. The show will present an overview of Gibran’s drawings and sketches alongside manuscript pages, notebooks, correspondence, magazine illustrations and essays, and first editions, providing a glimpse into the artist’s production in the context of his work as a whole. Naudline Pierre harnesses the power of spiritual iconography and transcendental motifs in her layered wash drawings and richly-hued paintings to create fictional worlds rooted in a mythology of her own making. In her exhibition This Is Not All There Is, Pierre will continue her exploration of imagined worlds, incorporating drawings large and small alongside and within sculptural elements to create an immersive environment. This is the artist's first exhibition to exclusively focus on her works on paper.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, 2 Exhibitions: A Greater Beauty / This Is Not All There Is

Opening Reception | Defiant Visions: Group Show


Defiant Visions showcases women photographers’ resistance to the apartheid regime through the lenses of their cameras. Apartheid was a system of institutionalized discrimination against people of color that existed in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. During decades of oppression, these women took photographs to expose not only racist but also gender-discriminatory social, economic and political structures.  
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, Defiant Visions: Group Show

Opening Reception | Kristin Sanders: Protoself


Kristen Sanders (b. 1989, California) lives and works in St. Paul, MN. She received a BA from the University of California Davis, and an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Solo and two person exhibitions include Dreamsong, Minneapolis, MN, St. Cloud State University, St Cloud, MN, Kathryn Brennan Gallery, New York, NY, Step Sister, New York, NY, Sadie Halie Projects, Minneapolis, MN, and Sediment Arts, Richmond, VA.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, Kristin Sanders: Protoself

Opening Reception | Laura Kramer: Portraits in Pearls


This show presents nine organically shaped blown glass forms sumptuously embellished with sparkling crystals, glass pearls and colored glass rods. “Throughout history pearls have been associated with the moon and its mythologies, love and purity, goddesses, and their tears, as well as with earthly power. My interest in cultural anthropology and cabinets of curiosities ultimately led me to La Peregrina - The Wanderer, a fabulous pearl that became a symbol of sovereignty and repeatedly changed hands and countries with the ebb and flow of European history. The largest tear drop pearl ever found in the New World, La Peregrina, embodied the fate of nations and has been represented in paintings from the time of Henry VIII to Elizabeth Taylor,” says Kramer of her inspiration for the new pieces.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, Laura Kramer: Portraits in Pearls

Opening Reception | Nicholai Khan: Be Your Own Icon


A special commemorative gallery exhibition celebrating a true Icon. Nicholai Khan was an artist, philosopher, humanitarian, and icon. His works are a fusion of his diverse upbringing and his exposure to the colorful and vibrant culture of Trinidad, as well as the graffiti scene in New York City during the mid-1980s. His masterful use of color and light is reminiscent of the tropical paradise of his childhood, while the texture and ultra-stylistic form of expression in his art are related to his exposure to the graffiti culture and galleries in NYC. Raised in a household with a mix of Hindu, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish backgrounds, Khan was exposed to various religions and spiritual teachings, which led him to find enlightenment in the intersection of all religions.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, Nicholai Khan: Be Your Own Icon

Opening Reception | Rafael Delacruz: Healing Finger Clean Drawings


The first solo exhibition for artist Rafael Delacruz (b. 1989) will feature all new work, including approximately 12 new paintings and a video.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 1
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 01, 2023, 06/01/2023, Rafael Delacruz: Healing Finger Clean Drawings

Opening Reception | Sky Marks | Landmarks: Curator's Tour


This exhibition looks at all the structures in New York designated as individual landmarks that are "skyscrapers." They count about 84. Just as the definition of characteristics that qualify a building to be a landmark is fairly vague - architectural, historical, or cultural significance - the show's definition of skyscraper is somewhat subjective. "Significantly taller than a cube" is a baseline, but a minimum number of stories is not. The earliest high-rises of the 1880s to 1900s that were ten to twenty stories were clearly skyscrapers in their day and so are included. Today the 102-story Empire State Building is the city's tallest individual landmark.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 2
2:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 02, 2023, 06/02/2023, Sky Marks | Landmarks: Curator's Tour

Opening Reception | 2 Photo Exhibitions: Clayton Patterson’s Front Door / (In)Visible Guides


Celebrating the opening of two Photoville 2023 exhibitions. Clayton Patterson’s Front Door: Residents and Writers features rarely seen images from the renowned photographer, who has documented the unique cultural ecosystem of the Lower East Side for over 40 years. The exhibition presents selections from the Front Door series, portraits taken in front of Patterson's 161 Essex Street studio from the mid 1980s to early 2000s. Known as the “Wall of Fame,” the door served as an important canvas for local graffiti writers and as a backdrop for Patterson’s portraits of local residents. (In)Visible Guides brings together photographer Destiny Mata and residents of a Lower East Side shelter for domestic violence survivors to explore notions of memory, safety, and loss. The installation pairs Mata’s work alongside neighborhood photography taken by shelter residents in workshops facilitated by Mata.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 3
4:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 03, 2023, 06/03/2023, 2 Photo Exhibitions: Clayton Patterson&rsquo;s Front Door / (In)Visible Guides

Opening Reception | Clayton Patterson’s Front Door: Residents and Writers


This outdoor exhibiton features rarely-seen images from the renowned photographer, who has documented the unique cultural ecosystem of the Lower East Side for over 40 years.  The exhibition presents selections from the Front Door series, portraits taken in front of Patterson's 161 Essex Street studio from the mid 1980s to early 2000s. Known as the “Wall of Fame, ” the door served as an important canvas for local graffiti writers and as a backdrop for Patterson’s portraits of local residents.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 3
4:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 03, 2023, 06/03/2023, Clayton Patterson&rsquo;s Front Door: Residents and Writers

Opening Reception | Martino Gamper: I am many moods


The Italian-born sculptor presents new works.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 07, 2023, 06/07/2023, Martino Gamper: I am many moods

Opening Reception | Exhibition Opening of Sylvia Palacios Whitman: To Draw a Line with the Body


Sylvia Palacios Whitman: To Draw a Line with the Body, the first solo exhibition and career survey of the Chilean artist in New York.  Sylvia Palacios Whitman (b. Osorno, Chile, 1941) is a visual and performance artist, who has been experimenting with movement and contemporary dance since her move to New York in the early 1960s. She became an integral figure of the experimental downtown arts scene in 1970s New York, having collaborated with many American and international artists. In her solo and group performances, Palacios Whitman developed her own choreographic language, which privileged the participation of untrained performers, embraced humor and unexpected elements, and incorporated found objects and ephemeral props. Galleries open at 6 pm and Live performances begin at 7 pm.  Registration required.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 7
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 07, 2023, 06/07/2023, Exhibition Opening of&nbsp;Sylvia Palacios Whitman: To Draw a Line with the Body

Opening Reception | A Midsummer’s Dream: Group Exhibition


A group exhibition of paintings and photographs that capture the mystical atmosphere of the summer season. The theme is explored through a series of landscapes as well as domestic interiors. Dreamy forests crossed by placid creeks evoke the majesty and enchantment of nature. An amber-like glow illuminates hazy Californian landscapes, while inordinately large flowers burst out of the canvas, demanding our undivided attention. More intimately, we spot the garden or sitting room of a Mexican house, decorated with vibrant touches of color. In the background, a tapestry of bright green foliage, blessed by the warm rays of the sun. In another series of still lifes, books, fruit, and flower vases are carefully arranged on a table, perhaps simple delights in a restful summer afternoon. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 8
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 08, 2023, 06/08/2023, A Midsummer&rsquo;s Dream: Group Exhibition

Opening Reception | Alexis Ralaivao: 11 New Paintings


Berlin-based painter Alexis Ralaivao’s largest New York solo exhibition to date. Featuring eleven new oil paintings, the exhibition unveils recent developments among Ralaivao’s signature detail views of human figures and the proprieties they observe. Articulating a sentimental ethnography of contemporary virtues and comportments, Ralaivao’s softly-rendered studies are drawn from 21st-century social life.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 8
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 08, 2023, 06/08/2023, Alexis Ralaivao: 11 New Paintings

Opening Reception | Minimalism and Its Afterimage: Group Show


This show will feature important works by Larry Bell, Liz Deschenes, Dan Flavin, Frank Gerritz, Marcia Hafif, Peter Halley, Ralph Humphrey, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Jonathan Lasker, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Robert Mangold, John McCracken, Howardena Pindell, Fred Sandback, Jan Schoonhoven, Sturtevant, and Christopher Wilmarth. The exhibition explores the legacy of Minimalism as it reverberates through various practices in the decades since its inception. Bringing together nineteen works by nineteen artists, produced in a variety of media and spanning seven decades, Minimalism and Its Afterimage demonstrates the ascendancy imparted by Minimalism’s major contributions to the art historical canon.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 8
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 08, 2023, 06/08/2023, Minimalism and Its Afterimage: Group Show

Opening Reception | Yvonne Wells: Play The Hand That's Dealt You


The first New York solo exhibition of Alabama-based artist Yvonne Wells. Born in 1939 in Tuscaloosa, Wells is known for her intricate narrative quilts depicting American history subjects, pop culture figures, and religious subject matter. As a self- taught artist living and working in the same region as the enslaved female quilters from the rural Alabama community known as Gee’s Bend, Wells is aware of heritage techniques, yet cleaves to her own contemporary visual vernacular. Through a practice that illuminates quilt making as a form of fine art and not simply craft, she has developed a style that uniquely melds geometric abstraction with bold figuration. The evolution of Wells’ personal aesthetic and technical mastery will be seen through over a dozen large works on view, spanning three decades of the artist’s career.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 8
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 08, 2023, 06/08/2023, Yvonne Wells: Play The Hand That's Dealt You

Opening Reception | El Camino: Stories of Migration – Nuevayorkinos


A photography exhibition that amplifies stories of Caribbean and Latin American (im)migration to New York City. All photos were taken before 2005 across the five boroughs, and each story was written by the family depicted in each photograph.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Jun 9
4:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 09, 2023, 06/09/2023, El Camino: Stories of Migration &ndash; Nuevayorkinos

Opening Reception | Haik Kocharian: Surfing Color


This show presents photographs that are abstract creations born from realism. Kocharian emphasizes the ambient color in the tradition of minimalism, observing the beauty and mystery of light, shadows, tone, and moods. The environments within the photographs are transformed into ones of symbolism, challenging the viewer to question the images. As a result, a tension is created, like an energy trapped in a frame attempting to escape.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 14
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 14, 2023, 06/14/2023, Haik Kocharian: Surfing Color

Opening Reception | Brian Butterick (Hattie Hathaway): And All They Loved


This is the first exhibition centered on the life of Brian Butterick (b. 1956 – d. 2019), also popularly known as Hattie Hathaway, his performance drag persona. Butterick first became well known for booking then managing the Pyramid through most of the 1980s and again into the 1990s, when Hattie joined the Blacklips Performance Cult he invited there. The exhibition sets off showcasing early poetry and publication in the 1970s, followed by his friendship with, and support from, writers in NYC and Provincetown.  A deep romance and creative collaboration with David Wojnarowicz continued from the late ‘70s into the early 1980s.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jun 15
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 15, 2023, 06/15/2023, Brian Butterick (Hattie Hathaway): And All They Loved

Open Studios | Open Studios


Open Studios offers a glimpse into the creative process and artistic development of LMCC’s Workspace artists-in-residence. Members of the public are invited into the studios for the first time at the culmination of this nine-month program housed in donated office space transformed into artist studios on the 12th floor. This is a unique opportunity to engage in conversation with our 11 multidisciplinary artists in their studios. Learn about their practices and experience a wide range of artistic work in progress, from movement and theater based performance, to fiction writing, sculpture, painting, film, poetry and more. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Sat, Jun 17
12:00 pm

Free
Open Studioss, June 17, 2023, 06/17/2023, Open Studios

Opening Reception | Rachel Stern: One Must Not Look at Anything


A solo exhibition of new photographs by Rachel Stern. 
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 21
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 21, 2023, 06/21/2023, Rachel Stern: One Must Not Look at Anything

Opening Reception | Susannah Rey: Down for the Day


The photographs are made along a 15-block stretch of Rockaway Beach, Queens. Less than a mile long, this section of beach is among the most utilized in New York City, hosting shoulder to shoulder crowds on summer weekends. The project title, Down For the Day, is the local description of day trippers, frequently called DFDs. This term, often meant to distance visitors from locals, here celebrates the tangled bodies and cramped encampments as attempts at finding not only respite from the city heat, but momentary paradise, imperfect but one’s own.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Wed, Jun 28
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, June 28, 2023, 06/28/2023, Susannah Rey: Down for the Day
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Play | A Modern Take on a Shakespeare Play with Broadway Actors

Regular Price: $40
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Classical Music | Uplifting Choral Music at a Landmark Venue

Regular Price: $65
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