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, while not as plentiful as Chelsea’s 300 galleries or the Lower East Side’s 125 galleries, are nevertheless important to the city’s gallery history.  For it’s in Midtown Manhattan over 100 years ago where New York’s first gallery neighborhood arose.  Of course, the skyscrapers weren’t nearly as large then, but it was (and still is) one of the city’s most bustling business districts.  And, compared to the relatively new gallery hotspots like Chelsea, there’s a lot less changeover of galleries in Midtown.

The art that galleries show in Midtown is typically more conservative than in Chelsea or the L.E.S. (less video and computer art, for example) – hence I don’t lead as many tours there – but every once in a while enough galleries in Midtown reach a critical mass of interesting, edgy exhibits.  The last time was 6 months ago, and the latest time is NOW.

A major highlight of this Saturday’s Skyscrapers gallery tour will be an exhibit by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who was in the news everywhere last year when he was arrested in his homeland for his art, but mostly for his blogs and tweets, that were blatantly anti-Chinese government.   He was tortured for several months, possibly suffering brain damage.  Currently, as far as I know, he’s under house arrest and therefore can’t leave China.

But his art can, and has, as you’ll see on Saturday.

Other highlights of this tour: a Latino artist’s enchanting sculptures made by assembling tens of thousands of colorful items, and a Dutch artist’s high-tech photography exhibit involving more extensive digital manipulation than I’ve ever seen.  All told there will be 7 fascinating shows on this tour.  And there’s no telling when my next tour will happen in this neighborhood, so take advantage while you can.

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