Upcoming exhibition: “Michael Zagaris: Total Excess”
Nov 17–Dec 18
Milk Gallery, a contemporary gallery and cultural space specializing in photography, kicks off autumn with an exhibition by legendary music photographer Michael Zagaris, showcasing the artist’s portraits of the most vital counter culture figures of the 1970s, including the Clash, Grateful Dead, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and others. 450 W 15th St (212-645-2797, themilkgallery.com). Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat & Sun 11am–7pm.
Photograph: Courtesy Milk Gallery
These days the art world has a global reach, with many different “capitals” feeding artists into a market dominated by contemporary art fairs. But going to galleries still matters, and there’s only one city in the world that can boast the largest and most varied concentration of them all: New York. There are hundreds of venues across the city, and many are closely located to one another in neighborhoods like Chelsea and the Lower East Side (they’re literally cheek by jowl in the former). Others are in more scattered locations in Soho, Tribeca, Brooklyn and even Queens. And there are always new gallery districts surfacing, most recently in Harlem. The point is, you can go just about anywhere in New York to see the latest in contemporary art or shows by modern and postwar masters. There is so much, it’s almost too hard to keep track of it all. With that in mind, we offer this guide of the city’s best art galleries.