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Free events for Saturday, 12/09/23
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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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9 Exhibition Openings at New York Art Galleries (NYC) Sat, 12/09/2023 - 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.

        

Open Studios | Open Studios


Senior students will open their studios for viewing along with other exhibition spaces throughout the building.
   New York City, NY; NYC
Mon, Dec 11
6:00 pm

Free
Open Studioss, December 11, 2023, 12/11/2023, Open Studios

Open Studios | Open Studios


MFA Fine Arts students Zoe Toscano, Tina Mitchell , Tyson Houseman, May Kwon, Jon Copes, Jusun Jessie Seo, Erin Hayde and Al Svoboda in their studios.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
5:00 pm

Free
Open Studioss, December 14, 2023, 12/14/2023, Open Studios

Opening Reception | 2 Art Shows: Blue Boy / DIstant Signals


Jesse Small - Distant Signals The exhibition will feature Small’s newest series of work, featuring layers of pierced metal screens which create a three-dimensional relief on the wall. The layers are well spaced to allow light to diffuse through the sculpture and generate shadows below. Timothy Cummings - Blue Boy While most of Cummings’s paintings are dream-like fantasies filled with myriad detail and discovery, each has a figure or figures. Much of Cummings’s work addresses the issue of youthful turmoil, of that awkward moment between childhood and adulthood, of identity, of gender. The artist often paints figures as a child might conjure them in his/her mind, giving a dreamlike, fantasy quality to a grown-up persona.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 14, 2023, 12/14/2023, 2 Art Shows: Blue Boy / DIstant Signals

Opening Reception | Exposure 3: Group Exhibition


Artists: Jacqueline BarnettoSamita BhatiaoEmily Farisho Olga GuerraoGail KolflatoSassoon KosianoLaurence Neron-BanceloMary Alice OritooFrancine PerlmanoHeather Stoltz
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 14, 2023, 12/14/2023, Exposure 3: Group Exhibition

Opening Reception | Marcus Leslie Singleton: Return from Exile


This exhibition showcases 10 new paintings, including the artist’s largest paintings to date, and his first exhibited video. A deeply personal show, Return from Exile confronts issues of visibility, spirituality and the historical significance of everyday moments.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 14, 2023, 12/14/2023, Marcus Leslie Singleton: Return from Exile

Opening Reception | Kristin Lucas: Primordial Soup of the Day


A live performance and screening of "Inforeceptor" (1994) with multimedia artist Kristin Lucas, an artist whose wide-ranging experiments with video, computer-generated imagery, technology history, and interactivity utilize playful, open-ended inquiry to examine the impacts of technological progress on Earth’s life forms and ecologies. Springing from Lucas’ decades-long engagement with networked technology, the evening will begin with a screening of Inforeceptor (1994)—a lighthearted yet ominous anticipation of the cresting World Wide Web shot on Hi-8 and Super-8, recently restored by the artist. A live performance will follow the screening, integrating display equipment from different eras to echo the evolution of life on our planet. Lucas will transform EAI’s office with video and augmented reality evoking the underwater home of a distant ancestor, a fish called the alligator gar, often referred to as a “living fossil” due to its morphological resemblance to ancestors dating back 100 million years. Alongside a live biodata soundtrack generated from the electrical signals of nearby plants, Lucas will narrate her research into the evolution of humans from fish, and her ongoing project of underwater breathing.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 14
7:30 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 14, 2023, 12/14/2023, Kristin Lucas: Primordial Soup of the Day

Opening Reception | Getting to Ick: Group Exhibition


Featuring the work of twelve artists: Ever Baldwin, Corydon Cowansage, Alison Croney Moses, Lucy Kim, Julia Kunin, Molly Lowe, Leeza Meksin, Bridget Mullen, Estefania Puerta, Douglas Rieger, Victoria Roth, and Grace Sachi Troxell. Focusing on the guttural and internal, this show probes at the experience of living in and having a physical body. Delving into pleasure, pain, and the banal, the artists in this show use abstraction to unveil bodily parts and experiences, considering the mechanisms of the flesh.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Fri, Dec 15
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 15, 2023, 12/15/2023, Getting to Ick: Group Exhibition

Opening Reception | Exposure 4: Group Exhibition


Artists: Marcy BernsteinoRobert BunkinoAliza DrilleroSung GrossoLeigh JeromeoFrancine PerlmanoAlan Reddick oJenny Tango
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Dec 21
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, December 21, 2023, 12/21/2023, Exposure 4: Group Exhibition

Opening Reception | Mika Tajima: Energetics


Through her multidisciplinary practice, Mika Tajima takes up questions of identity and agency in a world increasingly influenced and mitigated by technology. Her first exhibition at the gallery and first solo show in the city in eight years brings together sculptural, textile, and evolving sensorial works.
   New York City, NY; NYC
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Thu, Jan 11
6:00 pm

Free
Opening Receptions, January 11, 2024, 01/11/2024, Mika Tajima: Energetics
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Play | Love Story Play

Regular Price: $43
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Concert | Christmas Concert: Choir and Orchestra

Regular Price: $75
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