NYC Art Exhibits: 8 Renowned Shows - Contemporary Painting + Sculpture + Drawing at Chelsea & UES

New York City's gallery scene is at its peak right now — we spent a full day hitting eight shows across Chelsea and the Upper East Side, taking in monumental painting, large-scale sculpture, works on paper, figurative art, mixed media installation, and drawing spanning from early 20th century masters to the most exciting contemporary artists working today. This video is part art guide, part slow tour: we let the work breathe, scored with original ambient music to help you relax and really see. Whether you're an artist, art lover or just need a moment of calm, come along. GAGOSIAN | 541 West 24th Street, Chelsea Anselm Kiefer: "Seal My Ears Shut and I Shall Hear You Still" (May 15 – June 27) — A new body of monumental paintings advancing Kiefer's ongoing exploration of feminine archetypes and landscape as symbolic form. Drawing on Rainer Maria Rilke, Caspar David Friedrich, and female figures from classical mythology, the works are built from thickly layered surfaces of oil, acrylic, shellac, gold leaf, collaged canvas, and the deep verdigris green produced by electrolysis — a literal act of alchemy. HAUSER & WIRTH | 542 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Firelei Báez: "feet squelching on wet grass, nourished by uncertainty" (May 12 – July 31) — Báez's first NYC exhibition with Hauser & Wirth spans two floors with radiant new paintings, works on paper, and large-scale bronze sculptures. Working within the tradition of history painting while quietly dismantling its conventions, she extends her engagement with colonial legacies and the spiritual reverberations of the African diaspora. LUHRING AUGUSTINE | 531 West 24th Street, Chelsea Leon Kossoff (April 16 – June 20) — One of the most substantial presentations of Kossoff's work to be held in NYC in recent decades, bringing together paintings from across his career in partnership with the Leon Kossoff Estate. The late British painter, known for his thick impasto portraits and London cityscapes, is a towering figure in postwar figurative painting. PACE GALLERY | 540 West 25th Street, Chelsea David Hockney: "The Moon Room" (May 15 – August 14) — The legendary British artist brings new work to Pace, paintings he made on his iPad during the quaratine of COVID-19 pandemic, continuing his endlessly inventive engagement with light, color, and space. Paul Thek: "Dream of Vanishing" (May 15 – August 14) — The first major New York survey of Thek's work since his 2010 Whitney retrospective, presenting over fifty paintings, sculptures, and drawings. The title comes from a line in one of the artist's notebooks, pointing to his lifelong preoccupation with disappearance, erasure, and the ephemeral. SKARSTEDT | Chelsea, 25th Street Hans Josephsohn: "Early Sculpture (1947–1956)" (May 13 – June 27) — The first exhibition in 70 years to focus exclusively on this early period of Josephsohn's career, organized with the Hans Josephsohn Estate. The sculptures and wall reliefs on view — modeled in plaster and cast in brass — simplify the human form into angular, geometric figures that broadly evoke Egyptian funerary sculpture, made in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. MATTHEW MARKS | 522 West 22nd Street, Chelsea Katharina Fritsch (May 8 – June 27) — Five new large-scale sculptures, including three works revisiting models Fritsch originally made in 1979 as a student. The five sculptures are arranged in the gallery to loosely resemble a face when viewed from above. THE UHAUL GALLERY | Chelsea Street An unexpected stop — a pop-up art show in a U-Haul truck parked on a Chelsea street, with food, crowds, and the kind of energy that reminds you why NYC is like nowhere else. GLADSTONE GALLERY | 64th Street, Upper East Side Gustav Klimt: "Women" (May 15 – June 17) — An exhibition of studies and drawings by Klimt tracing his mature style: sublimely sensual and modern, rooted more in Austrian Jugendstil than academic tradition. ►► Subscribe for more art-focused videos:    / @soundsofny   🎥 Shot, edited & original music by soundsofnewyork Other videos you may be interested in:    • NYC Art Museums Tours   00:00 - Intro: Chelsea, NYC 00:21 - Gagosian Chelsea | Anselm Kiefer 02:08 - Hauser & Wirth | Firelei Báez 04:09 - Luhring Augustine | Leon Kossoff 06:10 - Pace Gallery | David Hockney 07:24 - Pace Gallery | Paul Thek 08:36 - Skarstedt | Hans Josephsohn 10:17 - Matthew Marks | Katharina Fritsch 11:07 - The U-Haul Gallery | Chelsea Street Pop-Up 12:08 - Travel to the Upper East Side 12:15 - Gladstone Gallery | Gustav Klimt: Women 13:41 - Manhattan Views #NYCGalleries #NewYorkArt #ContemporaryArt #ArtGalleryNYC #ChelseaGalleries #UpperEastSide #AnselmKiefer #Gagosian #FireleiBaez #HauserAndWirth #LeonKossoff #DavidHockney #PaulThek #PaceGallery #HansJosephsohn #Skarstedt #KatharinaFritsch #GustavKlimt #ModernArt