The New York City art world kicks off its fall season with major art openings in Tribeca and the Lower East Side (LES), two of the city’s most vibrant gallery districts. This week’s exhibitions spotlight cutting-edge photography, experimental painting, and immersive installations that set the stage for the season ahead. With Tribeca’s rapidly growing concentration of contemporary art galleries and the LES continuing to showcase bold and emerging talent, these neighborhoods are the must-visit destinations for anyone tracking NYC contemporary art shows. Whether you’re a collector, curator, or simply looking for the best art exhibitions in New York this weekend, downtown is where the season begins—with energy, ambition, and plenty to see.
LES | Fri
Bridget Donahue , 99 Bowery, work by Monique Mouton
High Noon Gallery, 124 Forsyth Street, ‘FRESHF LOWERS’ by Tom Burckhardt
Foreign & Domestic, 24 Rutgers St, ‘…aeronauts aimed for altitude, even…’ with ejército zapatista de liberación nacional, graciela carnevale, javier téllez, mattia denisse, bertran berrenger, orshi drozdik, madame helene alberti, robert walser
McKenzie Fine Art, 55 Orchard St, ‘The light gets in’ by Deborah Zlotsky
Sperone Westwater, 257 Bowery, 50th anniversary with Carl Andre, Alighiero e Boetti, Louise Bourgeois, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Hanne Darboven, Wolfgang Laib, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Heinz Mack, Carlo Maria Mariani, Mario Merz, Brenda Miller, Malcolm Morley, Bruce Nauman, Mimmo Paladino, Otto Piene, Susan Rothenberg, Robert Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol and William Wegman
Tribeca | Fri
Broadway, 375 Broadway, ‘Black Dots’ by Mindy Shapero
Tara Downs, 424 Broadway 3rd Fl, work by Madeleine Ray Hines, Preslav Kostov
apexart, 291 Church Street, ‘Surviving Shadows - Afghan Art in the Face of Suppression’ curated by Yama Rahimi
Grimm Gallery, 54 White Street, work by Rafał Topolewski
Jane Lombard Gallery, 58 White Street, ‘30x30’
Jack Shianman Gallery, 46 Lafayette St, ‘I AM MANY’ by Hank Willis Thomas
Charles Moffett, 431 Washington Street, ‘Book of Hours’ by Lily Stockman
James Cohan, 48 Walker St, work by Jordan Nassar, ‘Spirit and Form’ by Wayne Ngan
James Cohan, 52 Walker St, ‘100 Famous Views of New York City (After Hiroshige)’ by Spencer Finch
Ulterior, 424 Broadway, #601, work by Gaku Tsutaja
Rainrain, 110 Lafayette St, work by Maya Perry
Anat Ebgi, 372 Broadway, ‘A Boy That Dont Bleed’ by Caleb Hahne Quintana, ‘Mapping the Middle’ by Erin Wright
Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, ‘Simple World (Trauma Dumps and Love Bombs)’ by Hadi Falapishi
Andrew Kreps Gallery, 55 Walker, ‘Spoiled by Freud’ by Sofia Silva
Andrew Kreps Gallery, 394 Broadway, work by Kay Sekimachi
Astor Weeks, 209 Canal St, 3rd Floor, work by Willie Binnie and Elle Pérez
Asya Geisberg Gallery, 45 White St, ‘Los restos’ by Rodrigo Valenzuela
Bortolami, 39 Walker St, ‘Of Two’ by Naotaka Hiro
Bureau, 112 Duane St, work by Jerónimo Rüedi
Canada, 60 Lispenard St, ‘EF3+E40’ by Kahlil Robert Irving
Chapter NY, 60 Walker St, ‘Baby’ by Rene Matić, ‘Picture a Train’ by Elise Hess
Gaa Gallery, 4 Cortlandt Alley, ‘Laboratorio Mediterraneo’ by Andrej Dubravsky
Harkawik, 88 Walker St, work by Karen Barbour
Pablo’s Birthday, 105 Hudson Street, #410, ‘Silence’ by Eckart Hahn
PPOW, 392 Broadway, ‘Life Looks Like a House For a Few Hours’ by Erin M. Riley
Shrine, 368 Broadway, ‘Golden Hills’ by Ken Taylor Reynaga, ‘Summer’s Edge’ by Michelle Paterok
Stephen Friedman, 54 Franklin St, ‘Over Again’ by Ana Cláudia Almeida
Friday Map:
LES | Sat
Hashimoto Contemporary, 54 Ludlow St., ‘Analog Conditions’ by Angela Burson, ‘Acts of Observation’ by Rachel Gregor
Management, 39 E Broadway, 404, ‘Objects in Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear’ by Vladislav Markov
601artspace, 88 Eldridge Street, ‘Common Sentience’ with Janine Antoni, Daniel Bozhkov, Zana Briski, Juan William Chavez, Ania Freer, Meditation Ocean Constellation, Goldie Poblador, Ana Prvacki, Miguel Sbastida, Curated by Regine Basha
Soho | Sat
Deitch, 18 Wooster St, ‘Law and Order’ by Sam McKinniss
Tribeca | Sat
Freight & Volume, 39 Lispenard Street, work by Derek Franklin, Ethan Greenbaum, Sun You
81 Leonard Gallery, 81 Leonard St, ‘Coming Full Circle’ by Nancy Pantirer
Theta, 184 Franklin St, work by Elizabeth Englander
This weekend’s featured artist is Rodrigo Valenzuela, whose solo exhibition Los restos at Asya Geisberg Gallery offers one of the most talked-about new shows in Chelsea and beyond. Valenzuela presents his ongoing New Land series—large-scale canvases inspired by Chile’s Atacama Desert—alongside black-and-white silver gelatin prints that capture abandoned objects and relics as anti-monuments. Together, the works confront histories of violence, displacement, and utopian failure while drawing viewers into a layered meditation on photography, painting, and memory. Installed on a striking wooden scaffold structure, Los restos is a must-see exhibition that positions Valenzuela among the most compelling voices in contemporary art today.
Featured work above by Rodrigo Valenzuela at Asya Geisberg Gallery
