Chelsea Gallery Guide
What galleries to pop in and out of this weekend for your culture fix
I spent last Saturday on a gallery crawl through Chelsea with fellow New Museum patrons, an outing organized by a former TA of mine from Columbia—Vivian Crockett, who is now the Allen and Lola Goldring Curator at the New Museum. It was such a pleasure to reconnect with her and experience her thoughtful exhibition picks, especially during a month packed with upcoming art fairs and major events. Sometimes you need a Salon 21 guide to navigate through it and make the most of your sunny Saturday. The best part about the gallery tour in addition to Vivian’s expert commentary was the fact that the New Museum helped organize artists to be part of the tour.
We kicked things off at Paula Cooper Gallery (534 W 21st St) with Cynthia Hawkins: Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D. While the exhibition has since closed, I highly recommend learning more about her work here—and checking out their current Claes Oldenburg exhibition. Cynthia was there in person to walk our small group through her vibrant, abstract compositions and field questions about this new body of work. It was a rare opportunity to engage directly with the artist and her process.
“Cynthia Hawkins has consistently painted abstractly and in series, exploring diverse literary, philosophical, and scientific influences through work that is rich in color and meaning. In these works, the form of specific maps direct investigations into color and light, providing both an underlying compositional structure and a symbolic vocabulary that plays out on the surface. By manipulating the same maps within each work and across the series, Hawkins provides a consistent point of entry that guides the viewer to engage in extended looking.”
Next was Gladstone Gallery at 530 W 21st St for Robert Rauschenberg, Sympathy for Abandoned Objects which was narrated by artist David Salle.
The class I took with Vivian as my TA was called Neo-Dada & Pop Art, taught by Professor Branden Joseph. At the time, I was a young art history student primarily focused on antiquities and Old Masters. Modern art—particularly the period between Picasso and Warhol—felt outside my comfort zone. But that course completely shifted my perspective. It deepened my appreciation for artists like Cy Twombly, Rauschenberg, and Oldenburg, and helped me understand the broader historical context—their connections to figures like John Cage and the experimental spirit that shaped their work.
“Examining Rauschenberg’s sculptures through the lens of scale, the exhibition showcases over 30 sculptures that relate in size to the human body, whether floor-, pedestal-, or wall-based. Drawing from myriad media and disrupting the distinction between abstraction and empirical representation, Rauschenberg's sculptures are rooted in his career-long dedication to artistic experimentation.” One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It is amazing to see what an artist can do with found objects and how they can transform them into pieces that become something other than the sum of their parts and create a new visual vocabulary.
After David Salle went a little too long detailing Rauschenberg’s biography, we scurried over to Nara Roesler at 511 W 21st St, a gallery with a focus on renowned Brazilian and international contemporary artists, whose diverse practices converge in discussions on color, form, materiality, architecture, and memory. The artist Marco A. Castillo welcomed us for his exhibition, From the Circle to the Star. Castillo was featured in the New Museum group show featuring Bili Bidjocka, Los Carpinteros, and Rivane Neuenschwander in 1998.
“Castillo carries out extensive research in the fields of architecture, design, and sculpture—fundamental aspects of his artistic practice—which is characterized by installations, drawings, and sculptures that engage with space and negotiate, with notable humor, the functional and the non-functional. In his works, Castillo reflects on Cuba’s modernization process during the 1960s and 1970s, referencing influential Cuban artists, architects, and designers. His most recent sculptures and works on paper combine elements of the country’s modernist design and Soviet-era socialist realism with traditional Cuban techniques and materials, including mahogany and woven straw lattice, as well as the graphic design from that same period.”
I also found it thought-provoking to consider how Cuban mahogany was the key material used in the creation of the finest European furniture we now celebrate from the 19th century. It raises important questions about colonialism and how we contextualize the materials and means of production behind objects of cultural and historical value.
Our final stop as a group was Yancey Richardson at 525 W 22nd St, where we had the chance to meet Yancey herself. She spoke with us about Sawubona, the latest photography exhibition by b, and shared the story of how she first encountered Muholi’s work in South Africa—not long after the end of apartheid. Muholi, who describes themself as a visual activist, has been documenting and celebrating the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer, and intersex communities since the early 2000s. This exhibition highlights both the historical depth and visual richness of their ongoing project—one rooted in collaboration and dedicated to empowering the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa through authentic representation.
After an amazing two hours of a very well curated gallery tour, I knew I couldn’t head home with stopping at 555 w 24th St, the home of one of Gagosian’s largest exhibition spaces (newly renovated as well), to see Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting. It may be cliché, but he is one of my all-time favorite painters. You should also read our most recent post about his history Out East. There are paintings on loan from the Guggenheim, MoMA, and the exhibition itself was curated by Cecilia Alemani who curated the Venice Biennale in 2022 and is currently the curator of the High Line.
Exhibitions I still need to see:
Amy Sherald at The Whitney
Salman Toor at Luhring Augustine
Let me know what you’ve already seen/want to see/etc.!