The Modern Building Designs of Chelsea's Contemporary Art Galleries
Collaborating with notable architects, the influential art galleries of New York have erected modernist "mini-museums" in Chelsea. Staging major exhibitions, these galleries make for a perfect (and free) self-guided tour of the current contemporary art and modern architecture worlds of New York.
Image above: David Zwirner Gallery on West 20th St; Below, from left: The Gagosian, Barbara Gladstone and Paula Cooper Galleries on West 21st St.
WEST 20TH STREET
David Zwirner Gallery
537 West 20th St
Building Architect: Annabelle Selldorf
Opened: 2013
Five-stories of a nuanced exposed concrete facade with wood detailing invites the viewer to explore Zwirner's latest blockbuster exhibitions.
WEST 21ST STREET
Barbara Gladstone Gallery
530 West 21 St.
Building Architect: Annabelle Selldorf
Opened: 2008
Elegant black-brick monastic cube with a voluminous gallery space for large scale artworks. Gladstone is a New York art world legend. Her first gallery was founded in 1980 in SoHo - one of the first artists she showed was Jenny Holzer.
Gagosian Gallery
522 West 21st St
Building Architect: Gluckman Tang
Opened: 2006
A minimalist one-story yellow brick facade opens to an airy 9,200sf space with a sleek highly-polished floor.
Paula Cooper Gallery
534 West 21st St
Building Architect: Richard Gluckman
Opened: 1996
A classic industrial building with an exhibition space that easily handles towering sculptures. Cooper’s first gallery was founded in 1968 in the then undeveloped neighborhood of SoHo. Among the first artists she showed were Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt and Robert Ryman.
WEST 22ND STREET
Hauser & Wirth Gallery
542 West 22nd St
Building Architect: Annabelle Selldorf
Opened: 2023
A five-story gray facade announces the New York flagship for the multi-national mega-gallery. Selldorf, like Gluckman Architects, is responsible for many of the area's most prominent and eye-catching new buildings.
Matthew Marks Gallery
522 West 22nd St
Renovation Architect: Gluckman Mayner Architects
The 10,000sf gallery inhabits a charismatic industrial building painted black (shown above, left). Marks' first show in this space was Ellsworth Kelly in 1994. The gallery also maintains another large space on West 24th St (above, right).
WEST 24TH STREET
Gagosian Gallery
Building Architect: Gluckman Tang
Opened: 2000
Behind its industrial facade is a combination of buildings and spaces that enables Gagosian to exhibit works of monumental scale, such as Richard Serra’s steel constructions, and (shown above) Roy Lichtenstein's 26ft/8m tall "Bauhaus Stairway" mural.
WEST 25TH STREET
Pace Gallery
540 West 25th St.
Building Architect: Bonetti/Kozerski
Opened: 2019
Towering above its neighbors is the modern headquarters and exhibition spaces of the legendary Pace Gallery (shown, above left and center). Pace was founded by Arne Glimcher in 1960; among the artists it shows are Martin, Rothko and Dubuffet.
Petzel Gallery
520 West 25th St
Opened: 2022
The first Petzel Gallery opened in SoHo in 1994. Today the gallery occupies a sleek, black brick 16,000sf industrial building (above, right).
