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 are closed for a week or two, until New Year’s Day, then most of the city’s 600 galleries open brand new exhibits during the first two weeks of January. This all makes early January a very busy and intense time for me, as I’m rushing around to catch up with a seemingly endless number new shows to include on my tours.  But it’s part of my job.

Because of the mass closings between Christmas and New Year’s, I really have no choice but to suspend gallery tours then – much to my chagrin, as I get more than the usual number of requests for tours from people who are visiting the city just for the holidays.  But, as soon as Jan. 2 comes around, I’m open for business.  My scheduled tours happen Saturday afternoons, and this year the first Saturday of the year falls on Jan. 3.  While most galleries are still closed that day as they prepare for their first-of-year openings, a good 100 of Chelsea’s 300 galleries open their spaces on Jan. 2 with holdover shows that opened in December.

So my Sat. Jan. 3 scheduled gallery tour will be a Chelsea tour showing the best of these 100 shows.  This year that will be six newly-opened exhibits I’ve never shown, plus one “must-see” exhibit that was part of my December tour and is now about to close: an Asian artist’s epic and enormous paintings and sculptures of upheaval and resolution that constitute the single best show of the season so far.  Plus fabric art, photography, and video art, for 7 outstanding exhibits total.

Then the 2 weeks beginning Jan. 6 almost all of Chelsea’s other 200 galleries open with new shows, and this will set the stage for my Sat. Jan. 10 scheduled tour, which will also be in Chelsea.  I have no idea yet what these tours will consist of, they’re ones I won’t decide until the night before.

Rest assured, it will be the best of what’s out there.  And then towards the end of January, I get to rest myself.  But not for long.  Because that’s when all 600 new February exhibits open.

Rafael Risemberg, Ph.D., Director
New York Gallery Tours