The first art crawl of 2026 kicks off the new year with gallery openings across New York City’s downtown art neighborhoods, including the Lower East Side, NoHo, the West Village, and Tribeca. As NYC galleries return from the holiday pause, this week marks a renewed moment for contemporary art, emerging artists, and community-driven exhibitions. Gallery hopping through these iconic New York art districts is a time-honored way to reconnect with the city’s creative pulse and set the tone for the year ahead. Start 2026 immersed in NYC’s art scene, exploring galleries, exhibitions, and cultural spaces that continue to define New York City as a global center for contemporary art.
LES | Mon
Sitting Room Gallery, 195 Henry St, ‘Swimming’ by Jose Girand, 6pm-9pm
Noho | Weds
Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Gallery, 417 Lafayette, ‘May We Dance in the Face of Our Fears’ with Antonia Wright, Barbara von Portatius, Brad Kahlhamer, Cannon Hersey, Claudia Peña Salinas, Corey Escoto, Finley, Ghost of a Dream, Jen DeNike, Jennifer Wen Ma, José Carlos Martinat, LigoranoReese, Maynard Monrow, Nene Humphrey, Rico Gatson, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Tomas Vu, Sara Siestreem (Hanis Coos), and Thomas Beale, Curated by Maureen Sullivan
LES | Thurs
Half Gallery, 235 E 4th St, ‘In Paintings on Drawing’ by Emily Ferguson
Blade Study, 17 Pike Street, I wept at the tomb of my mother’s tongue by Adrienne Greenblatt
Hoffman Donahue, 99 Bowery, ‘Earley’ by John Russell
Trotter & Sholer, 168 Suffolk St, ‘Odd Poetry’ by Jane Haimes
Westwood Gallery, 262 Bowery, ‘Architecture of the Mind’ by Will Insley
Noho | Thurs
Aicon, 35 Great Jones St, ‘Tantra and Sufism’ by Lancelot Ribeiro, G. R. Santosh, Prafulla Mohanti, Biren De, Sohan Qadri, Rachid Koraïchi, Safdar Ali Qureshi
West Village | Thurs
Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune St, ‘Primeval Ground Deep, Unfathomable’ Group Exhibition Curated by Susan Rowe Harrison, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Tribeca | Thurs
Frisson, 141 Attorney St, ‘Three of Cups’ by Mariel Rolwing Montes, Alex Schmidt, Allie Taylor
Nicelle Beauchene Gallery, 7 Franklin Place, ‘Twice in a while’ with Felix Benton
Broadway, 375 Broadway, ‘Nightswimming’ group show curated by Erica Samuels
Canada, 60 Lispenard St, ‘The Individualism of Dona Nelson’ by Dona Nelson
Super House, 120 Walker St, ‘Shared Ground’ by Lewis Prosser & Sarita Westrup RSVP Email
Thursday Map:
This week’s featured artist spotlight turns to Jane Haimes, whose solo exhibition Odd Poetry at Trotter & Sholer offers a compelling moment within New York City’s contemporary art landscape. Known for her distinctive abstract paintings on wooden panels, Haimes creates works driven by color, form, and an exacting studio process. Her compositions function as non-narrative “tone poems,” inviting viewers to experience abstraction beyond representation and language.
Working through extended periods of experimentation, Haimes builds each painting through layers of hand-mixed color, glazes, and meticulous surface refinement. Shape and color stretch and press against the two-dimensional plane, resulting in self-contained abstract objects that reward slow looking. In an era defined by digital saturation and rapid consumption, Haimes’ process-centered approach feels both deliberate and necessary within today’s NYC art scene.
As galleries across the Lower East Side and downtown Manhattan reopen for the first art crawl of 2026, Odd Poetry stands out as a reminder of the power of abstraction, materiality, and sustained attention. For those exploring NYC gallery openings, contemporary abstract painting, and emerging and mid-career artists in New York, Jane Haimes’ work offers a quietly resonant way to close the week—and begin the year—with art.
Featured work above by Jane Haimes at Trotter & Sholer
