Dec
03
2023
Apr
18
2020
On March 31, 2020, two weeks after I had to suspend my art gallery tours due to the pandemic, I wrote the following as an email and sent it out to my gallery tours email list:
Dear gallery tour friends,...
Sep
17
2019
While both Bushwick artist studios tours this weekend at 3:30 PM are sold out, you can still definitely attend as a Walk-In for regular admission and visit not just the 7 artist studios officially a part of this tour,...
Sep
23
2015
Recently an article appeared in Crains New York whose title was "Lower East Side Could Soon Overtake Chelsea as City's Art Epicenter." I'm probably the world's biggest fan of both of these art neighborhoods. Chelsea was already a gallery...
Sep
12
2015
In the days leading up to Labor Day, the Chelsea gallery district is like a dormant volcano. “Off-season” doesn’t begin to describe it: just last week, only 50 or so of Chelsea’s 300 galleries were open for business. Just...
Jul
05
2015
Contrary to public perception, the large majority of New York's art galleries are OPEN throughout the summer. However, in July and August galleries are closed weekends. Since all of the scheduled tours I lead take place on Saturdays, it means...
Jun
09
2015
It's that time of year: the final month of the peak gallery season, which runs from September to June. So every scheduled tour I lead this month is the final one of the season. It turns out that this...
May
10
2015
To my surprise and delight, things are looking very good lately for the Midtown Manhattan art galleries, as you'll see on my Sat. May 16 Skyscrapers gallery tour there. This is going to be my fourth gallery tour in...
Apr
13
2015
I haven't led a Soho gallery tour in 4 months. That's because there are only 25 galleries left there (versus Chelsea's 300 galleries and the Lower East Side's 125 galleries), so I have to wait awhile before enough Soho...
Mar
26
2015
One of the great aspects of the Lower East Side is that it's the most likely gallery neighborhood where artists are willing to speak to our group when we visit. That's because the gallery owners there are younger than...
Mar
05
2015
Though this is the single worst winter weather-wise since I started leading gallery tours 13 years ago, the art in the Chelsea galleries is absolutely exceptional for my all-new Chelsea "Best Exhibits" tour Sat. March 7. The New York...
Feb
08
2015
My first-ever gallery tour, 13 years ago, was a gay men's gallery tour, and once a month, for 10 months a year, I've led a completely different LGBT gallery tour. That makes 130 LGBT tours I've led, all of...
Jan
19
2015
I'm constantly telling my gallery tour participants not to touch any art we see. Though everything in the galleries is for sale, galleries are not exactly "stores" - they're more like museums in the sense of look but don't touch. Unless...
Jan
01
2015
The New Year is significant in the New York gallery scene because most galleries time their final Fall exhibits to close at around the same time, which is the 3rd week in December. Then just about all of them...
Dec
08
2014
I'm excited to announce that my monthly LGBT gallery tour in Chelsea on Sat. Dec. 13 at 1:00 PM will have a special one-time theme: "Masculinity and Art." Almost all of the artists on this tour will be male, some of...
Nov
23
2014
If you're hanging out with friends or family this Thanksgiving weekend, I can't think of a more entertaining way to share the holiday festivities than my ALL-NEW Lower East Side gallery tour on Sat. Nov. 29. This neighborhood, with over 125...
Oct
26
2014
The Midtown galleries that form what I call my Skyscrapers gallery tour - the next one being Sat. Nov. 1 at 1:00 PM - are in New York City's longest-lasting and most stable gallery area. The 45 skyscraper galleries in Midtown,...
Sep
26
2014
For the first time ever, I'll be leading TWO different gallery tours in one weekend. On Sat. Sept. 27 at 1:00 PM will be my Lower East Side gallery tour, featuring young, exciting artists from the area's 125 galleries....
Aug
19
2014
A gallery opening is the single most festive time in an exhibit’s run. Because the artwork is being shown publicly for the first time, artists, gallery owners and gallery directors are all likely to be there, excited to see...
Jul
28
2014
Summer is a time when New York's galleries are closed weekends, so in July and August I can't offer my very popular scheduled Saturday tours, though I do offer private tours on weekdays. That is, until now: on Saturday...
May
25
2014
I don't exaggerate when I say that my Sat. May 31 Chelsea gallery tour will be the most extraordinary tour of the last 6 months, in any gallery neighborhood! As it is, my Chelsea tours are always my best...
Apr
28
2014
I'm excited to announce that my Chelsea "Best Exhibits" tour Sat. May 3 at 1:00 PM and 3:45 PM - already the most extraordinary tour of the month - will include a visit to a high-end gallery installation of...
Apr
07
2014
The Whitney Museum Biennial is one of the art world's most anticipated events, so I'm thrilled to announce that my Gay & Lesbian gallery tour in Chelsea on Sat. April 12 will include shows by not one but TWO queer...
Mar
16
2014
It shouldn't (and didn't) surprise me that when when I found this season's most original art exhibit in any gallery neighborhood in the city - which will of course be the featured stop on my Sat. March 22 gallery...
Feb
24
2014
It's hard to believe that I haven't led a Soho gallery tour in 10 months, but that drought is about to end with my OUTSTANDING Soho gallery tour Sat. March 1 at 1:00 PM. It's not that I didn't...
Jan
27
2014
In the previous gallery season that lasted Sept. 2012 - June 2013, I was less than impressed with Upper East Side gallery exhibits, so I ended up offering a total of just 2 tours there the whole 10 months....
Dec
31
2013
My new year of gallery tours will begin on Jan. 4 with a very special event: young artist Danielle Durchslag will speak to us when we visit her brand new Lower East Side gallery exhibit. When I first walked...
Dec
10
2013
Many of my regulars know that when I started New York Gallery Tours almost 12 years ago, it was at first exclusively a gay men's gallery tour. In that time I've led well over 100 LGBT tours (and hundreds...
Nov
18
2013
I’m exited to announce my FIRST-EVER Tribeca gallery tour, taking place Sat. Nov. 23 at 1:00 PM. TriBeCa’s name is an acronym of sorts meaning “Triangle Below Canal” St. This area has had a small number of galleries for years, though...
Nov
03
2013
I'm not prone to exaggeration, so when I say that my Sat. Nov. 9 ALL-NEW Chelsea "Best Exhibits" tour will be my most extraordinary tour of the entire Fall season, covering the months September through December, I hope a...
Oct
01
2013
The entire last season I ended up leading just two Upper East Side gallery tours. I would love to have led more of them, but I always wait until the art is good enough there to make a tour...
Jul
20
2013
New York’s galleries are open year-round. In the summer they’re fully air-conditioned and open weekdays - but closed weekends - so in July and August I lead only private gallery tours in Chelsea, the world’s center for contemporary art. Then,...
Jun
16
2013
It's that time of year when my scheduled gallery tours are approaching the end days. That's because in July and August galleries close on weekends, and all of my scheduled tours happen on Saturdays. Though I'll continue leading private...
May
27
2013
There's a simple reason why my Sat. June 1 Chelsea gallery tour will be the most extraordinary tour of the past 14 months: it's coming on the heels of the acclaimed Frieze art fair that recently took New York...
Apr
15
2013
The Lower East Side galleries, still growing in numbers at a tremendous rate, have developed a reputation for putting on the most experimental exhibits in the city, that take the viewer outside the proverbial box. Well, I'm here...
Mar
22
2013
I live in Greenwich Village, so the galleries we'll visit on my first-ever Greenwich Village gallery tour on Sat. March 30 will be my neighborhood galleries. Therefore, I have somewhat of a personal attachment to these spaces. The Village...
Mar
10
2013
One of the 7 exhibits we'll visit on my Sat. March 16 Gay & Lesbian gallery tour in Chelsea will be an unusually disturbing and fascinating exhibit by a gay male artist - indeed, the most taboo-breaking queer artist...
Feb
24
2013
The singular experience when you attend my Skyscrapers gallery tour in Midtown Manhattan’s business district is that it will likely be the most elevators you will have ever ridden in one day. This is my “vertical” gallery tour, with great views...
Feb
03
2013
I am thrilled to announce that my ALL-NEW Chelsea "Best Exhibits" tour Sat. Feb. 16 - as always the most extraordinary tour I lead each month - will also be the most multi-sensory tour I've EVER led in the...
Jan
24
2013
I can't believe I'm saying this: my Lower East Side gallery tour is now my overall favorite of all five neighborhoods where I lead tours! This is all the more amazing considering that a few short years ago there weren't enough...
Jan
13
2013
I'm thrilled to announce that my Sat. Jan. 19 LGBT gallery tour in Chelsea will be attended by a lesbian meetup group called "Lesbian NYC Adventures," so there will be even more women than usual that day. Stephanie, the...
Jan
01
2013
Galleries like to put their best foot forward at the beginning of the year, so I'm excited to announce that my own first gallery tour of the New Year - the Chelsea "Best Exhibits" tour on Sat. Jan. 12...
Dec
16
2012
My ALL-NEW Lower East Side gallery tour on Sat. Dec. 22 will visit mostly start-up galleries by the city's young, rising-star gallery owners, including the NEWEST gallery there - having opened its doors to the public Dec. 13 and featuring works...
Dec
02
2012
First the good news: one month after the severe flooding in the Chelsea gallery district due to Hurricane Sandy, only a handful of Chelsea's 300 galleries - fewer than 10 - are still out of commission. The other 290+...
Nov
18
2012
Until this week I had NEVER seen laser lights as part of a gallery exhibit or museum exhibit - only at concerts and discos - so I'm thrilled to announce that my Sat. Nov. 24 Lower East Side gallery...
Oct
28
2012
I've been leading fewer gallery tours in Soho, and more tours on the "exploding" Lower East Side. But the legendary Soho galleries are still cutting-edge, so my next Soho gallery tour will happen this coming Saturday. There's no telling when the...
Oct
13
2012
When I say that one of the 7 stops we'll visit on my Sat. Oct. 20 Gay & Lesbian gallery tour consists of semen paintings, I don't mean oil paintings depicting semen. No, I'm talking about paintings MADE OF...
Sep
30
2012
Once a month during the gallery season I hold a contest between three Manhattan gallery neighborhoods - Soho, the Upper East Side, and the Midtown Skyscrapers galleries - to determine which neighborhood is showing the best art, and therefore...
Sep
16
2012
On my gay & lesbian gallery tours, which I've been leading for over 10 years, my goal has been to broaden my attendees' experience of LGBT artists to include gay artist exhibits from around the world. One major country...
Sep
09
2012
If you want to explore gallery art in New York City in an intensive way, while saving money, you can purchase our One-Year Unlimited Pass for $300, and get admitted to every scheduled tour we lead for an entire...
Jun
23
2012
The gallery season that began in September 2011, and wraps up with my ALL-NEW Chelsea "End-of-Season" tour on Sat. June 30, has been the most remarkable in the 10 years I’ve been leading gallery tours. I’m glad to report that my...
Jun
17
2012
The Lower East Side art scene is the most daring and unconventional of the city's several gallery neighborhoods. That's because its 125 galleries have the youngest gallery owners in the city, almost all of them starting a gallery for...
Jun
10
2012
Andy Warhol was gay, of course, but museums never show Warhol’s raunchy male erotica silkscreen prints and drawings. It’s beneath them, I suppose. But, on rare occasion (only the 2nd time in the last 10 years of my obsessive...
May
20
2012
Yes, the galleries are open this holiday weekend, and my Lower East Side gallery tour on Sat. May 26 at 1:00 PM will feature ALL-NEW art by the youngest, freshest artists and gallery owners in the city! On this tour you’ll...
May
13
2012
My Skyscrapers gallery tour in Midtown on Sat. May 19 at 1:00 PM will include a Russian artist’s exhibit whose subject matter is BEYOND CONTROVERSIAL – buying or selling these works as other than art could land a person in JAIL! ...
May
06
2012
It may come as a surprise that NOT that many gay artists produce blatantly homoerotic artwork. At least this is true for artists who are established enough to be “players” on the international art scene, such as the ones...
Apr
15
2012
It has been an entire year since I led a gallery tour in Soho, the origin of many legendary, ground-breaking galleries, but that drought will come to an end on Sat. April 21 at 1:00 PM, when I lead...
Apr
07
2012
Our Sat. April 14 Gay & Lesbian gallery tour in Chelsea will include 6 queer artist exhibits and just one straight artist show, the highest percentage of queer artists we’ve shown on a gallery tour in 3 years. Usually...
Mar
30
2012
Naturally, I haven’t visited every art neighborhood in human history. No one has. Nevertheless, a strong case can be made that Chelsea today is the world’s most extraordinary gallery neighborhood, past or present. You’ll have a chance to see...
Mar
03
2012
It was on the 2nd Saturday of March 2002 that I led my first gallery tour, under my newly-formed enterprise “New York Gallery Tours.” Therefore, my Sat. March 10, 2012 Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour will mark my company’s 10-year...
Feb
19
2012
The Lower East Side art scene has become what I would call breath-taking! Six years ago the L.E.S. had just 10 galleries, but it recently reached the 120-gallery mark. In comparison, the Upper East Side, a quite respected gallery...
Feb
12
2012
It’s kind of staggering to realize that my Gay & Lesbian gallery tour on Sat. Feb.18 at 1:00 PM in Chelsea, open to people of any orientation, will be the 100th completely different LGBT tour I've led since I...
Feb
05
2012
Canadian artist Donald Ian McCaw, my Artist Career Consultants client, recently opened his first-ever Chelsea solo show at the Anna Kustera Gallery, located at 520 W. 21st St. This ground-floor gallery happens to be next door to the Gagosian...
Jan
29
2012
British artist Damien Hirst is the quintessential “bad-boy” artist of our time, and reputedly the wealthiest artist alive. He skyrocketed to world fame with groundbreaking sculptures of dead animals suspended in glass vats of formaldehyde, including an entire shark...
Jan
22
2012
My Lower East Side gallery tour on Sat. Jan. 28 is shaping up to have collectively the most mind-expanding, unconventional art I have ever shown in the nearly 10 years I have been leading gallery tours. If you’re looking...
Jan
15
2012
Artist Barbara Sandler, who has had a female partner for 26 years, likes to paint portraits only of men. That has put her at odds with the lesbian community, who throughout Sandler’s 40-year career has accused her of being...
Jan
08
2012
A Chelsea gallery exhibit, newly opened, is likely to be THE talk of the New York art scene this year, and it will certainly be included in my Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour on Sat. Jan. 14, as one of...
Dec
11
2011
Out of the blue last month, I got an e-mail from Alex Erikson, an editor at Next Magazine, New York City’s premier glossy gay weekly, with a circulation in the tens of thousands. He wanted to do a feature...
Dec
04
2011
Our Gallery Tour Gift Certificates - for friends, family members and co-workers - are unique, thoughtful, and inexpensive. You can purchase any of three types of gift certificates: (1) Scheduled Tour gift certificates for just $25 each, or (2) a...
Nov
20
2011
Whether you’re hosting guests over Thanksgiving weekend, or just catching up on sleep, you know that 4 days is a lot of time to entertain and be entertained. So we suggest you spend the Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving on...
Nov
13
2011
I’m excited to announce that my LGBT gallery tour on Sat. Nov. 19 will be the most extraordinary such tour of the past year! What will make this particular tour so exceptional? To begin with, it will include an...
Nov
06
2011
When people attend my Chelsea gallery tours - which are the most extraordinary ones I lead - they’ll likely assume that a lot of art in the Chelsea galleries is fantastic. Well, sorry to disillusion you, but nothing could...
Oct
30
2011
There is no better venue for painting – even contemporary, cutting-edge painting – than the gorgeously finished rooms of the Upper East Side mansion galleries. And you’ll be seeing plenty of both in my first Upper East Side gallery...
Oct
23
2011
Installation art is rare enough, but sound art installation is rarer still, since galleries are all about visual art. I happen to be a huge fan of sound art in galleries, even if I hardly ever encounter it (or...
Oct
17
2011
It used to be that gay Western artists didn’t want to be known as gay, because it would likely ruin their careers, and it could even lead to their imprisonment. In the decades following the 1969 Stonewall riots, gay...
Oct
09
2011
Installation art is a rare - and thrilling - type of art in galleries. Rare because these enormous, room-filling works are much riskier to sell, as they can’t possibly fit into anyone’s living room, and even museums would likely...
Oct
02
2011
My Skyscrapers gallery tour in Midtown is an event I lead only around 3 times a year, and when I do it’s a winner. In the case of my Sat. Oct. 8 tour, I visited over 100 new gallery...
Sep
25
2011
Just since this past June, the Lower East Side has opened 15 new galleries, bringing its total number to around 115. I don’t know when the explosion of galleries in what has become NYC’s hottest art neighborhood is going...
Sep
18
2011
My monthly Gay & Lesbian gallery tours are absolutelycentral to my enterprise. As it happens, the first gallery tour I ever led—in March 2002—was a gay men’s event. And my second tour—four weeks later—was for gay men and lesbians. Surprised? ...
Sep
11
2011
What a difference a week makes. At the time I wrote my last blog about the 2011 gallery season about to open, 90% of Chelsea’s galleries were completely shut down, and the remaining 10% were mostly on the last...
Aug
17
2011
After what felt like an endless summer when the New York galleries were off-season, I’ve now finalized the calendar for my first month of gallery tours for the new season, and it begins Sat. Sept. 10. This...
Jun
19
2011
The gallery season that began in September 2010, and comes to an end with my ALL-NEW Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour on Sat. June 25, has been the most remarkable in the 9 years I’ve been leading gallery tours. I’m...
Jun
12
2011
I’m thrilled to announce that my final Lower East Side gallery tour of the season on Sat. June 18, showing all-new exhibits, will include a talk by transgender artist Amos Mac when we visit his fascinating photo exhibit of...
Jun
05
2011
What an extraordinary season this has been for my Gay & Lesbian gallery tours - in the past two months alone my groups have attended major solo exhibits by some of the queer giants of the art world, including...
May
29
2011
The gallery season runs only through June, but it is clear that many galleries have saved their best for last. Highlights of my ALL-NEW Chelsea “Best Exhibits” gallery tour on Sat. June 4 will include: (1) a British...
May
15
2011
The gallery season runs from mid-September through June, then in July and August galleries are closed weekends. The more stately uptown galleries start wrapping up their season a bit earlier, and therefore my ALL-NEW Upper East Side gallery tour...
May
08
2011
I’m THRILLED to announce that a major Robert Mapplethorpe gallery exhibit, and much more, will be included on my LGBT gallery tour Sat. May 14 in Chelsea. By the time Mapplethorpe died in 1989 from AIDS-related causes at age...
May
01
2011
Contemporary artists are treasured for pioneering new directions in art, the more innovative the better. And with over 300 galleries in Chelsea, the sheer amount of originality can be staggering, if you know where to look. As...
Apr
17
2011
The Lower East Side galleries are growing so rapidly that I’ve decided to designate them as L.E.S. “Cutting-Edge” tours, effective with my Sat. April 23 tour. The only other tours that have received a special honor in their titles...
Apr
10
2011
One of the gay artists whose exhibit we’ll be visiting on our Sat. April 16 LGBT gallery tour is arguably the world’s most famous living gay artist, second only to Jasper Johns. Currently 87 years old, his paintings are...
Apr
03
2011
Our Frequent Tour Cards have been the most popular promotion we’ve ever run. They work something like frequent flyer miles: at the end of each tour you get a stamp on your card, and after 10 stamps your next...
Mar
27
2011
It’s not as easy as you’d think to arrange for an artist to speak to our group when we visit their show on one of our gallery tours. Many of them live out of state or out of the...
Mar
19
2011
Even I’m stunned at how suddenly the Lower East Side galleries have become an international art destination. The number of galleries and quality of art continue to grow on a monthly basis, and my Lower East Side gallery tour...
Mar
13
2011
There is SO much to see on our L.G.B.T. gallery tour in Chelsea on Sat. March 19. The talk of the city’s art scene is a gay Chinese artist who has been doing a LIVE performance art piece in...
Mar
05
2011
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that live performance art is the very rarest type of exhibit in art galleries and museums, especially performances that are designed to take place continuously from doors opening to closing each day. In...
Feb
26
2011
I’ve lived in the West Village for almost 20 years, so I’ve been watching with great interest the recent emergence of a gallery cluster in my neighborhood. These galleries are more of a “cutting-edge” variety like the downtown gallery...
Feb
19
2011
The Upper East Side galleries are most notable for their gorgeous mansions and townhouses. When exhibits take place in these spaces, it’s hard not to take into account the artworks’ posh surroundings, with the result that the artwork can...
Feb
12
2011
My Sat. Feb. 19 Gay & Lesbian gallery tour in Chelsea will be the 90th LGBT tour I have led in 9 years, all of them showing completely different exhibits. Highlights will include: (1) gay artist Trey Speegle, who...
Feb
05
2011
I’m thrilled to announce that the single most extraordinary art exhibit of the entire season so far, which began in September, will be part of my Sat. Feb. 12 Chelsea “Best Exhibits” tour. I don’t make this statement lightly. ...
Jan
29
2011
The single most popular exhibit this season so far, as enthusiastically expressed by my participants, was Patrick Hughes’ stunning 3D paintings - requiring no special glasses or electricity of any kind - that I showed on my Jan. 15...
Jan
23
2011
For years I’ve been leading a combination Soho/ Lower East Side gallery tour, and it has been my second most extraordinary tour, topped only by Chelsea. The reason for combining the adjacent neighborhoods into one tour at the time...
Jan
15
2011
Let me throw a hand grenade into the LGBT community: I have found that there are 4 times as many gay male artists as lesbian artists who show in contemporary art galleries.
How did I arrive at the number “four”? ...
Dec
11
2010
You may have seen the recent headlines about a major Washington, D.C. museum bowing to pressure by yanking a video from its exhibit. Well, we have just learned that a Lower East Side gallery has begun to show...
Dec
04
2010
There are a TON of special exhibits lined up for my Gay & Lesbian gallery tour on Sat. Dec. 11 at 1:00 PM, including a monumental show of early work by Robert Rauschenberg, arguably the second most important gay...
Nov
27
2010
New York City has a staggering 600 galleries, and growing, a number that is unparalleled in human history within one metropolis. I like to call New York the “Hollywood of Contemporary Art,” as this is where artists and gallery...
Nov
20
2010
Thanksgiving is, of course, a time for families to gather. On the day itself galleries are closed, but on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving they are open, and every year I get requests from families to lead them...
Nov
13
2010
The words “controversial” and “Upper East Side galleries” are not often uttered in the same breath. The U.E.S. is, after all, the most conservative art neighborhood in New York City, and the last thing those galleries want to do...
Nov
06
2010
We are excited to announce that three artists will speak at our Sat. Nov. 13 LGBT gallery tour when we visit their latest shows: gay painter Keith Mayerson, lesbian photographer Lori Nix, and gay artist Brice Brown. This will...
Oct
23
2010
Galleries are businesses. Except when they’re not. Of New York’s 600 galleries, 15 or so are legally non-profit entities, and 7 of them reside in Soho, making that neighborhood the go-to destination for non-commercial gallery art. And since there...
Oct
11
2010
A photo of a guy pissing into another guy’s mouth, or of a bullwhip sticking out of someone’s ass, wouldn’t raise many eyebrows in the porn-saturated gay male community. But when those and other homoerotic works by Robert Mapplethorpe...
Oct
09
2010
A central feature of my gallery tours is introducing participants to new, barely discovered talent when their art merits it. Well, it doesn’t get any newer or younger than 26 year-old lesbian artist Daphne Arthur, fresh out of Yale’s...
Oct
02
2010
My enterprise is completely dependent on the financial and creative health of New York City’s galleries, particularly in Chelsea, where I lead the most tours. So no one has paid more attention to the state of this neighborhood during...
Sep
25
2010
I have a love/hate relationship with the Upper East Side galleries. On the one hand, the actual spaces are hands down the most gorgeous art galleries in the world. Half of them are situated in old-world mansions and townhouses,...
Sep
18
2010
You wouldn’t know that we were mired in an economic slump if you gauged it by the continued robust expansion of the Lower East Side galleries. Four years ago there were only around 10 galleries there, and today that...
Aug
10
2010
The gallery earthquake of the year was undoubtedly the announcement in January that Jeffrey Deitch was closing down the two branches of his Soho gallery Deitch Projects – arguably one of the world’s greatest galleries (I would argue yes,...