From cutting-edge solo shows in the Lower East Side to emerging talent in Chinatown & Two Bridges, and from polished Tribeca spaces to the character-rich galleries of the West Village, this week’s downtown art scene is full of standout openings worth your time. Below is our curated guide to the must-see NYC art openings happening across Lower Manhattan — plus, don’t miss our helpful map of Friday’s listings to help you navigate the night. And be sure to check back later this week for our Tribeca Festival preview, featuring picks across art, film, and more!
LES | Weds
Baxter St, 154 Ludlow St, The Lams of Ludlow Street by Thomas Holton
Lichtundfire, 175 Rivington St, Recent Collages by Yevgeniy Fiks
Tribeca | Thurs
185 Varick St, Worlds Collide (Thankm you and Goodnight) featuring various artists, curated by Zachary Eric Federbush, 6pm-9pm
Locker Room, 253 Church St, Soft-Coeur’ by Elana Stonaker, 7pm-9pm
Ortuzar Projects, 5 White St, ‘Always’ by Nancy Dwyer
Uprise Art, 264 Canal St, #4W, ‘Passing Through’
LES | Thurs
Kaliner, 42 Allen Street,, ‘Nightlight ’ by Natalia Zourabova, RSVP
Peter Blum Gallery, 176 Grand St, ‘Shifting Horizons’ by Nancy Diamond, Alex Katz, Eleanor Ray, Nicole Wittenberg, Robert Zandvliet
Art Gotham, 4 Saint Marks Place, Europe/ArtNow featuring several artists, 6pm-9pm
56 Henry, 56 Henry St, ‘Adolescent Sanctuary’ by Koichi Sato
Psychic Readings Gallery, 629 East 9th St, Scent & Sound’ by Woojae Kim, Esperanza Window Trap
LES | Fri
Kates-Ferri Projects, 563 Grand Street, In the Light that Remains curated by Studio Lenca featuring various artists
Laams, 74 Orchard St, Visions of the Rooftop’ by Jonah Schwartz, 6pm-9pm
Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market St, New Art, New Design’ 5pm-7pm
Tribeca | Fri
apexart, 291 Church Street, ‘Cruising in the Shadows: Uncovering Secret LGBTQ+ Culture in New York City’ Curated by Matthew Terrell
Rainrain, 110 Lafayette St, work by Zhi Wei Hiu
Sebastian Gladstone Gallery, 36 White St, ‘John of Patmos’ by Chad Murray
Swivel, 555 Greenwich St, work by Sonia Jia
Dimin, 406 Broadway, ‘Hello, Goodbye’ by Michelle Im
Pace University Gallery, 41 Park Row, Anthology, 5pm-7pm
Ulterior, 424 Broadway, #601, flicker/reform/dissolve with Annabel Daou, Rachael Catharine Anderson, Selena Kimball
Silke Lindner, 350 Broadway, ‘To be seen with heavy eyes’ with various artists
George Adams Gallery, 38 Walker Street, ‘Early/Middle/Late’ with Robert Arneson, Jack Beal, Peter Saul, M. Louise Stanley
Margot Samel, 295 Church Street, ‘Imago’ by Carolina Fusilier
PPOW, 392 Broadway, ‘Hope is a dangerous thing’ with Kyle Dunn, Raque Ford, Paul Kopkau, Diane Severin Nguyen, Kayode Ojo, Marianna Simnett, Robin F. Williams
LES | Sat
ghost machine, 23 Monroe St, No Longer Me’ by Zac Hacmon, Wael Haffar Habbal, 6pm-9pm
Tribeca | Sat
Scroll, 86 Walker St, Nowhere Still’ by Andrew Gordon
West Village | Sat
Westbeth Gallery, 55 Bethune St, Following the Trace’ curated by Zoe Samudzi, featuring several artists
Featured work above by Chad Murray at Sebastian Gladstone Gallery
Art Gallery Map, Friday Guide:
Whether you’re making the rounds in the Lower East Side or wandering into a West Village brownstone gallery, this week’s art openings across Lower Manhattan highlight just how varied and vital the downtown scene continues to be. From Chinatown’s emerging project spaces to Tribeca’s polished white cubes, the exhibitions on view speak to both a reverence for tradition and a hunger for reinvention.
A standout this week is Chad Murray’s solo exhibition John of Patmos at Sebastian Gladstone Gallery, an ambitious series of oil paintings that revisits the apocalyptic imagery of The Book of Revelation. But Murray isn’t interested in spectacle — instead, his work questions the very stability of historical painting, exploring how familiar images are repurposed, reinterpreted, and ultimately reshaped through time. His fragmented landscapes and obscured forms invite viewers to see history not as fixed narrative, but as an evolving lens — one that continues to reflect our current moment as much as any ancient text.
Don’t forget to check out our interactive map of Friday’s openings, which includes detailed info on participating galleries across Tribeca, the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Two Bridges, and the West Village. And later this week, we’ll be sharing our full Tribeca Festival preview, spotlighting a mix of visual art, film, and performance across the neighborhood.
Until then, explore widely — the art of downtown Manhattan never stays still for long.
