Chelsea and the Meatpacking District

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Table of Contents

Meatpacking District | Chelsea

Updated By Jacinta O’Halloran

Chelsea long ago usurped SoHo as the epicenter of New York contemporary art galleries, but the opening of the High Line above 10th Avenue gave a new life to this part of the city, catalyzing new development and quickly turning the area into one of the city’s most popular attractions. Momentum surged with the 2015 arrival of the Whitney Museum of American Art, which firmly established the area as a major art hub and destination—and one of the city’s hottest real estate markets. Rising rents have meant fewer small galleries and, indeed, fewer small anything. With the onslaught of tech and media companies relocating here, you’ll find more hackers than butchers, more chain stores than independent boutiques, and a constantly changing neighborhood.

Getting Here and Around

The A, C, E, L, 1, 2, and 3 trains stop at 14th Street for both the Meatpacking District and Chelsea. The latter neighborhood is further served by the C, E, F, M, and 1 lines at 23rd Street and by the 1 train at 28th Street. PATH trains also stop at 14th Street and 23rd Street.

Making the Most of Your Time

Plan your visit to the High Line around food: work up an appetite first by walking downtown along the High Line from 34th Street and then to Chelsea Market, Gansevoort Market, or the food carts peppering the southern reaches of the park (from 15th to 17th Street) for a bite, or pick up food on your way to the High Line for a picnic there. There are also seasonal food vendors on the High Line for impromptu snacking.

Chelsea has a dual life: typical gallery hours are Tuesday to Saturday 10–6, but at night the neighborhood changes into a party town, with bars (gay and straight) and high-profile nightclubs that don’t rev up until after 11.

To truly appreciate the Meatpacking District, make a 9 pm or later dinner reservation at a hot restaurant, then hit the bars to see the glitterati.

If shopping is your pleasure, weekdays are great; come after noon, though, or find most spots shuttered.

Top Experiences

Gallery-hopping in Chelsea

Walking along the High Line

Exploring the Whitney Museum of American Art: the new building has light-filled galleries and wonderful views from the terraces

Checking out the Meatpacking District’s nightlife

Eating your way through Chelsea Market or Gansevoort Market

Shopping the ultrachic boutiques in the Meatpacking District

Best for Kids

Chelsea Piers

The High Line

Hudson River Park

Coffee and Quick Bites

Blue Bottle Coffee.
If you’re serious about coffee, fresh-baked pastries, eco-friendly practices, and good old-fashioned service, stop in at this trendy coffee shop, or its seasonal outpost on the High Line. | 450 W. 15th St. , Chelsea | www.bluebottlecoffee.com | Station: A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

Donut Pub.
Care for a red-velvet doughnut or an old-fashioned cruller with your coffee? A 5 am sugar fix after a night clubbing in the Meatpacking District? Pull up a stool—it’s open 24/7. | 203 W. 14th St., at 7th Ave. , Chelsea | 212/929–0126 | www.donutpub.com | Station: 1, 2, 3 to 14th St.; A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

Ninth Street Espresso.
The Chelsea Market outpost of Ninth Street Espresso is popular all day, though the lines in the morning are longest. | Chelsea Market, 9th Ave., between 15th and 16th Sts. , Chelsea | 212/228–2930 | www.ninthstreetespresso.com | Station: A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

Meatpacking District

Concentrated in a few blocks of what is essentially the West Village, between the Hudson River and 9th Avenue, from Little West 12th Street to about West 17th Street, the Meatpacking District used to be the center of the wholesale meat industry for New York City. There are few meat markets left in this now rather quaint cobblestone area, but it’s definitely a figurative meat market at night, when the city’s trendiest frequent the equally trendy restaurants and bars here. The area is also home to some of the city’s swankiest retailers, with high-profile fashion designers and labels like Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Ted Baker London, and Tory Burch, as well as lesser-known boutiques like Warby Parker, Kilian, and The Kooples.

Gansevoort Market.
Named after a food market that existed here in the 1800s, this 8,000-square-foot food hall—with its carefully curated list of vendors and vine-covered, skylit dining space—is like the younger, cooler, lesser-known sister of nearby tourist-mobbed Chelsea Market. Opened in late 2014, the market is slowly filling up with a mix of artisan purveyors selling everything from overstuffed lobster rolls, sweet and savory stuffed brioche-muffin hybrids, and American-style macarons to tacos served from a VW van, homemade bread from Gansevoort Bakery, and a variety of pork fare from the Pig Guy. When weather permits, the garage-door facade rolls up to expose the market to the cobblestone streets outside. | 52 Gansevoort St., between Greenwich and Washington Sts. , Meatpacking District | 212/247–1701 | www.gansmarket.com | Daily 8 am–9 pm | Station: A, C, E, to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

Fodor’s Choice | Whitney Museum of American Art.
After four decades on the Upper East Side, the Whitney shook off its stone Marcel Breuer shell in early 2015 and relocated to this steel, glass, and light-filled Renzo Piano–designed building in the Meatpacking District. Unlike its notoriously aloof Chelsea gallery neighbors, the museum welcomes visitors with a lively plaza, bold works of contemporary and modern American art, terraced outdoor spaces, and expansive windows. There are eight floors with more than 50,000 square feet of state-of-the-art gallery space, 13,000 square feet of outdoor space facing the High Line, a restaurant on the ground floor, and a café on the eighth floor. TIP Start your visit at the top, on the eighth floor, and work your way down via the outdoor terraces, the interior stairs, or the elevators, which usually have works of art as well. The galleries house rotating exhibitions of postwar and contemporary works from the permanent collection that include artists such as Jackson Pollock, Jim Dine, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothko, Chuck Close, Cindy Sherman, and Roy Lichtenstein. Notable pieces often on view include Hopper’s Early Sunday Morning (1930), Bellows’s Dempsey and Firpo (1924), Alexander Calder’s beloved Circus , and several of Georgia O’Keeffe’s dazzling flower paintings. The Whitney experience is as much about the setting as the incredible artwork. The outdoor terraces on floors 6, 7, and 8 are connected by exterior stairs that provide a welcome reprieve from crowded galleries; the balconies also offer rotating exhibits along with stunning views of the city skyline, including the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center. Free tours of the collection and current exhibitions are offered daily; check the website for more information. After 7 pm on Friday the price of admission is pay what you wish. TIP Skip the long lines and buy tickets in advance, and note that you can not buy same-day tickets online. They must be purchased the day before and are available up to midnight. | 99 Gansevoort St., between Washington St. and 10th Ave. , Meatpacking District | 212/570–3600 | www.whitney.org | $22 | Mon., Wed., and Sun. 10:30–6, Thurs.–Sat. 10:30–10 | Station: A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

Chelsea

Most of Chelsea’s art galleries are found from about 20th to 27th Streets, primarily between 10th and 11th Avenues. The range of contemporary art on display includes almost every imaginable medium and style; if it’s going on in the art world, it’ll be in one of the 300 or so galleries here.

Top Attractions

Chelsea Market.
This former Nabisco plant—where the first Oreos were baked in 1912—now houses more than three dozen vendors carrying everything from gourmet food and wine, to oils, vinegars, teas, spices, gift baskets, and kitchen supplies; there’s also an Anthropologie store, wine bar, barbershop, shoeshine stand, and one of New York City’s last independent bookstores (Posman Books). Renowned specialty purveyors including L’Arte del Gelato, Fat Witch Bakery, Amy’s Bread, and Ninth Street Espresso flank the interior walkway that stretches between 9th and 10th Avenues. Be sure to wander into the 15th Street Arcade, where a bunch of great kiosks sell everything from fresh mini-doughnuts to Australian meat pies, Brooklyn-made caramels, and authentic Mexican street food. The market’s funky industrial design—a tangle of glass and metal for an awning, a factory pipe converted into an indoor waterfall—complements the eclectic assortment of shops. TIP There is some seating inside, but if the weather’s nice, take your goodies to the High Line. | 75 9th Ave., between 15th and 16th Sts. , Chelsea | 212/652–2117 | www.chelseamarket.com | Mon.–Sat. 7 am–9 pm, Sun. 8–8 | Station: A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.

David Zwirner.
In 2013, Zwirner further solidified his commitment to contemporary art, and his place in the ranks of the most successful galleries in the art world, with this vast, purpose-built, five-story exhibition and project space, created to complement the programming of the gallery’s three existing West 19th Street locations a block away. Zwirner’s galleries show works in all mediums by artists like Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Blinky Palermo, Jeff Koons, Gordon Matta-Clark, Doug Wheeler, and Yayoi Kusama. In 2016, Zwirner presented its first exhibition of Sigmar Polke’s work, now exclusively represented by the gallery. Since his death in 2010, the German-born artist’s eclectic, multidisciplinary works have been the subject of critically acclaimed retrospectives at major museums around the world. | 537 W. 20th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/517–8677 | www.davidzwirner.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Gagosian Gallery.
This enterprising modern gallery has two large Chelsea branches (the other is at 522 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues) and three galleries on the Upper East Side, as well as 10 more 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. | 555 W. 24th St., at 11th Ave. , Chelsea | 212/741–1111 | www.gagosian.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Gladstone Gallery.
The international roster of artists at this gallery’s two Chelsea locations includes painter Ahmed Alsoudani, sculptor Anish Kapoor, photographer Sharon Lockhart, and multimedia artists Matthew Barney and Cecilia Edefalk. The other location is 530 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. | 515 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/206–9300 | www.gladstonegallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Hauser & Wirth.
On the site of the former Roxy nightclub and roller rink on West 18th Street, this Hauser & Wirth gallery is the opposite of its narrow town-house location on the Upper East Side. The space is huge (23,000 square feet), cavernous, and begs for sprawling exhibits and large-scale works. Emerging and established contemporary artists in the powerful Hauser & Wirth fold that show here include Dieter Roth, Paul McCarthy, Eva Hesse, and Jason Rhoades. In 2018, the gallery will relocate to a new building on West 22nd Street and will have two floors of galleries, office space, and a bookstore. | 511 W. 18th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/790–3900 | www.hauserwirth.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Fodor’s Choice | The High Line.
Once a railroad track carrying freight trains, this elevated space has been transformed into one of the city’s top attractions—a 1½-mile landscaped “walking park,” with curving walkways, picnic tables and benches, public art installations, and views of the Hudson River and the Manhattan skyline. Running from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District (at the Whitney Museum of Art) to West 34th Street, the High Line somehow manages to host about 5 million visitors a year and still feel like a wonderful retreat from the hubbub of the city.

One of the main draws of the High Line is the landscaping, which is carefully choreographed and yet wild and untamed at the same time. Visitors can see many of the original species that grew in the rail beds, as well as shrubs, trees, grasses, and perennials chosen for their hardiness and sustainability. The landscape is restless and always changing, with each week bringing new colors, textures, and scents; check the website before you visit to see what’s in bloom.

Chelsea Market Passage, between 15th and 16th Streets, is accented with Spencer Finch’s stained-glass art and home to public art displays, video programs, music performances, and sit-down events.

A particularly popular feature that illustrates the High Line’s greatest achievement—the ability to see the city with fresh eyes—is the 10th Avenue Square (between 16th and 17th Streets). This viewing window with stadium seating and large picture windows frames the ever-moving and -changing city below as art, encouraging viewers to linger, watch, pose, and engage with the city in a new way.

The 25-by-75-foot billboard located within a parking lot next to the High Line at 18th Street and 10th Avenue presents a series of art installations on view for a month at a time.

The best way to fully appreciate the High Line is to walk the full length of the elevated park in one direction (preferably from Gansevoort Street uptown so that you can end with panoramic views of the city and Hudson River) and then make the return journey at street level, taking in the Chelsea neighborhood, and eats, below. TIP Nearby Chelsea Market and Gansevoort Market are convenient places to pick up fixings for a picnic lunch.

From April to October, starting at sunset, you can join the AAA (no, not the motor club, the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York) to view celestial bodies and stars at various points along the High Line. Check the High Line’s Twitter feed (@highlinenyc) or website for current details. | 10th Ave., from Gansevoort St. to 34th St. , Chelsea | 212/206–9922 | www.thehighline.org | Dec.–Mar., daily 7–7; Apr., May, Oct., and Nov., daily 7 am–10 pm; June–Sept., daily 7 am–11 pm | Station: A, C, E to 14th St.; L to 8th Ave.; 1, 2, 3 to 14th St.; 1 to 23rd St. or 28th St.; 7 to Hudson Yards .

Marlborough Chelsea.
With galleries in London, Monaco, and Madrid, the Marlborough empire also operates two of the largest and most influential galleries in New York City, as well as a shared annex on the Lower East Side. The Chelsea location (the other is on 57th Street) shows the latest work of modern artists, with a focus on sculptural forms, such as the boldly colorful paintings of Andrew Kuo. Red Grooms, Richard Estes, and Magdalena Abakanowicz are just a few of the 20th-century luminaries represented. | 545 W. 25th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/463–8634 | www.marlboroughgallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Mary Boone Gallery.
Based in SoHo in the late ‘70s, when it was a hot showcase for younger artists, the Mary Boone Gallery relocated to Midtown (745 5th Avenue, near 58th Street) in 1996 and then opened this additional branch in a former garage in Chelsea in 2000. The Chelsea space allows for large-scale works and dramatic installations. Over the years, Boone has shown and represented artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, Ross Bleckner, and Ai Weiwei. Boone continues to show established artists such as Barbara Kruger, Pierre Bismuth, and Francesco Clemente, as well as relative newcomers such as Jacob Hashimoto and Hilary Harkness. | 541 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/752–2929 | www.maryboonegallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Matthew Marks Gallery.
A hot venue for both the New York and international art crowd, openings at any of the four Matthew Marks galleries are always an interesting scene—there are three other locations along 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues. Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone made his U.S. debut here, as did Andreas Gursky. Luigi Ghirri, Darren Almond, Jasper Johns, Robert Adams, Nan Goldin, Ellsworth Kelly, and a cast of illustrious others also show here. | 523 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/243–0200 | www.matthewmarks.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Fodor’s Choice | Museum at FIT.
What this small, three-gallery museum housed in the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) lacks in size, staging, and effects, it more than makes up for in substance and style. You don’t find interactive mannequins, elaborate displays, or overcrowded galleries at the self-declared “most fashionable museum in New York City,” but you do find carefully curated exhibits, an impressive permanent collection that includes more than 50,000 garments and accessories from the 18th century to the present, and dedicated followers and students sketching and leaning in to wow over seams and sequins. The Fashion and Textile History Gallery, on the main floor, provides ongoing historical context with a rotating selection of historically and artistically significant objects from the museum’s permanent collection (exhibits change every six months), but the real draw here is the special exhibitions in the lower-level gallery. Recent examples include Denim: Fashion’s Frontier , an exploration of the history of denim from work wear to haute couture, and Fashion Underground: The World of Susanne Bartsch, featuring almost 100 over-the-top looks from the queen of the New York City nightclub scene in the ‘80s. Gallery FIT, also located on the main floor, is dedicated to student and faculty exhibitions. | 227 W. 27th St., at 7th Ave. , Chelsea | 212/217–4558 | www.fitnyc.edu/museum | Free | Tues.–Fri. noon–8, Sat. 10–5 | Station: N, R to 28th St.

 

Art Galleries in Chelsea

Good art, bad art, edgy art, downright disturbing art—it’s all here waiting to please and provoke in the contemporary art capital of the world. For the uninitiated, the concentration of nearly 300 galleries within a seven-block radius can be overwhelming, and the sometimes cool receptions on entering and the deafening silence, intimidating. Art galleries are not exactly famous for their customer service, but you don’t need a degree in art appreciation to stare at a canvas or installation.

There’s no required code of conduct, although most galleries are library quiet and cell phones are seriously frowned on. Don’t worry, you won’t be pressured to buy anything; staff will probably be doing their best to ignore you.

Galleries are generally open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 to 6. Gallery hop on a Saturday afternoon—the highest-traffic day—if you want company. You can usually find a binder with the artist’s résumé, examples of previous work, and exhibit details (usually including prices) at the front desk; if not, ask. Also ask whether there’s information you can take with you.

You can’t see everything in one afternoon, so if you have specific interests, plan ahead. Find gallery information and current exhibit details by checking the listings in the New Yorker or the weekend section of the New York Times . Learn more about the galleries and the genres and artists they represent at www.artincontext.org .


 

Pace Gallery.
The impressive roster of artists represented by the Pace Gallery includes a variety of upper-echelon artists, sculptors, and photographers, including Alexander Calder, Tara Donovan, Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Rauschenberg. Pace has three spaces along West 25th Street in Chelsea (including its new eight-story flagship gallery currently under construction at No. 540), as well as a Midtown location (at 32 East 57th Street). | 508 W. 25th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/989–4258 | www.thepacegallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Paula Cooper Gallery.
SoHo pioneer Paula Cooper moved to Chelsea in 1996 and enlisted architect Richard Gluckman to transform a warehouse into a dramatic space with tall ceilings and handsome skylights. There are now two galleries (the other is at 521 West 21st Street) that showcase the minimalist works of artists such as Carl Andre, Sam Durant, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin. | 534 W. 21st St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/255–1105 | www.paulacoopergallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Ryan Lee Gallery.
In 2014, the Ryan Lee Gallery moved from its year-old, street-level location a few doors down to this new third-floor, 8,000-square-foot space, thereby doubling its physical space and—thanks to its elevated exhibition space, RLWindow, which can be viewed from the High Line—increasing its visibility by millions. RLWindow shows innovative and experimental projects by contemporary artists; recent exhibits turning heads on the High Line have included video installations from Rashaad Newsome and Rudy Burckhardt. | 515 W. 26th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/397–0742 | www.ryanleegallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Worth Noting

Andrea Rosen Gallery.
Artists on the cutting edge, such as Felix Gonzalez-Torres, video artists Ryan Trecartin and Lizzie Fitch, sculptor Andrea Zittel, and painter and installation artist Matthew Ritchie, are on view here. Rosen has a second space, Gallery 2 (at 544 West 24th Street), just down the street from the gallery headquarters, with more experimental shows that place less emphasis on commercial appeal or success. | 525 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/627–6000 , 212/627–6100 for Gallery 2 | www.andrearosengallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Casey Kaplan.
While many galleries are fleeing Chelsea’s high rents for less pricey and more artist-friendly neighborhoods like the Lower East Side or the Upper East Side, Casey Kaplan chose to mark its 20th anniversary in 2015 by moving just a few blocks, into a new 10,000-square-foot, two-story storefront space on West 27th Street. The Kaplan gallery represents contemporary artists from Europe and the Americas. | 121 W. 27th St., between 6th and 7th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/645–7335 | www.caseykaplangallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: 1 to 28th St.

Cheim & Read.
This prestigious gallery represents artists such as Louise Bourgeois, William Eggleston, Joan Mitchell, Jenny Holzer, Donald Baechler, and Jack Pierson. | 547 W. 25th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/242–7727 | www.cheimread.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Chelsea Piers.
This sports-and-entertainment complex along the Hudson River between 17th and 23rd Streets, a phenomenal example of adaptive reuse, is the size of four 80-story buildings laid out flat. There’s pretty much every kind of sports activity going on both inside and out, including golf (check out the multitier, all-weather, outdoor driving range), sailing classes, ice-skating, rock climbing, soccer, bowling, gymnastics, and basketball. Plus there’s a spa, elite sport-specific training, and film studios. Chelsea Piers is also the jumping-off point for some of the city’s various boat tours and dinner cruises. | Piers 59–62, Hudson River from 17th to 23rd Sts. (entrance at 23rd St.) , Chelsea | 212/336–6666 | www.chelseapiers.com | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Cushman Row.
Built in 1840 for merchant and developer Don Alonzo Cushman, this string of redbrick beauties between 9th and 10th Avenues represents some of the country’s best examples of Greek Revival row houses. Original details include small wreath-encircled attic windows, deeply recessed doorways with brownstone frames, and striking iron balustrades and fences. Note the pineapples, a traditional symbol of welcome, on top of the black iron newels in front of No. 416. | 406–418 W. 20th St., between 9th and 10th Aves. , Chelsea | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Galerie Lelong.
This large gallery presents challenging installations, including work by many Latin American artists. Look for art by Yoko Ono, Alfredo Jaar, Andy Goldsworthy, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Hélio Oiticica, Nalini Malani, and Petah Coyne. | 528 W. 26th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/315–0470 | www.galerielelong.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Hotel Chelsea.
This 12-story Queen Anne–style neighborhood landmark (1884) became a hotel in 1905, although it catered to long-term tenants with a tradition of broad-mindedness and creativity. The literary roll call of live-ins is legendary: Mark Twain, Eugene O’Neill, O. Henry, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, Vladimir Nabokov, Mary McCarthy, Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas, William S. Burroughs, Patti Smith, and Robert Mapplethorpe. In 1966 Andy Warhol filmed a group of fellow artists in eight rooms; the footage was included in The Chelsea Girls (1967). Home to about 100 long-term residents, the Chelsea Hotel, as it’s popularly called, stopped accepting guest reservations in 2011 and is currently closed for renovations. | 222 W. 23rd St., between 7th and 8th Aves. , Chelsea | www.hotelchelsea.com | Station: 1, 2, C, E to 23rd St.

Jack Shainman Gallery.
Emerging and established artists such as Nick Cave, El Anatsui, Carrie Mae Weems, Tallur L. N., and Kerry James Marshall are shown here. In 2013, the gallery opened an additional exhibition space in Chelsea (524 West 24th Street), as well as a 30,000-square-foot gallery in a former high school in upstate New York. | 513 W. 20th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/645–1701 | www.jackshainman.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Luhring Augustine Gallery.
Owners Lawrence Luhring and Roland Augustine have been working with established and emerging artists from Europe, Japan, and America since 1985. In 2012, Luhring Augustine opened a Brooklyn outpost (at 25 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick) for large-scale installations and long-term projects. | 531 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/206–9100 | www.luhringaugustine.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Metro Pictures.
The hottest talent in contemporary art shown here includes Cindy Sherman, Olaf Breuning, Louise Lawlor, Trevor Paglen, Camille Henrot, and B. Wurtz. | 519 W. 24th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/206–7100 | www.metropicturesgallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Nancy Hoffman Gallery.
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 sculpture garden. Artists range from Viola Frey, known for her heroic-scale ceramic male and female figures, to well-established artists and a strong group of young artists embarking on their first solo shows. | 520 W. 27th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/966–6676 | www.nancyhoffmangallery.com | Free | Sept.–July, Tues.–Sat. 10–6; Aug., weekdays 10–5 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Robert Miller Gallery.
Robert Miller was a titan of the New York art world, and he founded this gallery in 1977 (he passed away in 2011). It continues to represent some of the biggest names in modern painting and photography, including Diane Arbus, Patti Smith, Mayumi Terada, and the estate of Lee Krasner. | 524 W. 26th St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/366–4774 | www.robertmillergallery.com | Free | Sept.–June, Tues.–Sat. 10–6; July, weekdays 10–6; Aug., by appointment only | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

Rubin Museum of Art.
This sleek and serene museum spread over six floors is the largest in the Western Hemisphere dedicated to the art of the Himalayas, India, and neighboring regions. The pieces shown here include paintings on cloth, metal sculptures, and textiles dating from the 2nd century onward. Many of the works from areas such as Tibet, Nepal, southwest China, and India relate to Buddhism, Hinduism, Bon, and other eastern religions. In late 2015, the museum expanded its fourth-floor Tibetan Buddhist Shrine room to allow for a more immersive experience, with art and ritual objects presented as they would be in an elaborate household shrine. A pleasant café and gift shop is on the ground floor. TIP Admission is free Friday 6–10 pm. | 150 W. 17th St., near 7th Ave. , Chelsea | 212/620–5000 | www.rmanyc.org | $15 | Mon. and Thurs. 11–5, Wed. 11–9, Fri. 11–10, weekends 11–6 | Station: 1 to 18th St.

Tanya Bonakdar Gallery.
Contemporary artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Uta Barth, Ernesto Neto, Lisa Oppenheim, and Sarah Sze, who represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale, are shown here. | 521 W. 21st St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/414–4144 | www.tanyabonakdargallery.com | Free | Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.

303 Gallery.
International cutting-edge artists shown here include up-and-coming New York artist Jacob Kassay, photographer Doug Aitken, and installation artists Karen Kilimnik and Jane and Louise Wilson. In 2016, 303 Gallery moved to its long-awaited new home on West 21st Street after a temporary stint under the High Line at 24th Street. The gallery’s new space anchors the first two floors and mezzanine of a new Norman Foster luxury high-rise. | 551 W. 21st St., between 10th and 11th Aves. , Chelsea | 212/255–1121 | www.303gallery.com | Free | Sept.–July, Tues.–Sat. 10–6 | Station: C, E to 23rd St.