"I realised that I didn't want to feel like I'm at a trade show every day." That was Garth Greenan, speaking to The Art Newspaper in September about his decision to leave his longtime space on West 20th Street for two cast-iron storefronts at 10 and 25 Greene Street in SoHo.
The same article quoted a dealer who was moving the other way. Victoria Mouraux Durand-Ruel, opening her namesake gallery at 555 West 25th Street, called Chelsea the "obvious choice since it's where the contemporary gallery community is today."
The rooms Chelsea lost on West 20th and West 25th were filled by newcomers on the same block or in the same building. This Thursday, November 12, the biggest of those newcomers, Gazelli Art House, opens a new show on the same evening as Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian, and a long list of its neighbors.
West 20th Street: One Dealer Out, Another In
Greenan's time on West 20th Street covered most of the past fifteen years. He opened on a tenth floor in 2011, moved down to street level on the same block five years later, and has now left for SoHo.
The block did not stay short a gallery for long. 47 Canal, which takes its name from its roots at the meeting point of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, is now open on the ground floor at 529 West 20th Street. Its Chelsea debut was a solo exhibition by Cici Wu, Auld Lang Syne (prelude), which ran October 1 through November 7.
A few doors west, Hales at 547 West 20th Street holds an opening reception Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. for Virginia Jaramillo's Pause in Time. One stretch of West 20th Street between Tenth and Eleventh avenues therefore has a gallery that just arrived and a gallery opening a new show this week.
West 25th Street: Marlborough's Room Gets a Second Life
The bigger change is five blocks north. Marlborough Gallery ran for nearly 80 years and closed its New York gallery in 2024. Its former home was a two-story space at 545 West 25th Street, in the building known as the Chelsea Arts Tower, which also houses the FLAG Art Foundation and Glasshouse Chelsea.
A space like that is hard to replace. Artforum gives the room as 9,228 square feet, with 18-foot ceilings, a 1,250-square-foot private terrace, and a street-level garage door wide enough for artworks up to 14 feet tall. The property went on the market in 2025 at $10.9 million and later sold for $7.5 million to Gazelli Art House, a gallery founded in 2010 by Mila Askarova that also operates in London and Baku.
Gazelli opened there on September 22 with a group show, Put the Kettle On, which ran September 23 through October 31. Two doors down at 555 West 25th, Mouraux Durand-Ruel opened its first show the same week, with photographs by Lucien Clergue. The dealer is 28 and a descendant of Paul Durand-Ruel, the Parisian dealer who championed the Impressionists.
Here is how the block-by-block turnover looks this year:
| Block | Left | Arrived |
|---|---|---|
| West 20th Street | Garth Greenan Gallery, to SoHo | 47 Canal, 529 West 20th |
| 545 West 25th Street | Marlborough, closed 2024 | Gazelli Art House, opened September 2026 |
| 555 West 25th Street | Mouraux Durand-Ruel, opened September 2026 | |
| Tenth Avenue at West 27th Street | Galerie Templon, closed April 2026 |
The Tenth Avenue row matters for the bigger picture. Artnet News reported in June that Galerie Templon closed its Chelsea branch near West 27th Street at the end of April after a rent increase, and that it was looking for a smaller New York space. Even with that departure, the side streets between Tenth and Eleventh avenues gained more galleries than they lost this fall.
The Newcomers' First Big Night Is Also Everyone Else's
The arrivals now have a full schedule, and they share Thursday with the established galleries.
Gazelli opens Harold Cohen: Painting About Representation (1962–71), its first New York solo show for Cohen. The exhibition brings together seventeen paintings from the decade before he turned to computers and created AARON, one of the earliest artificial intelligence art-making systems. The preview on Gazelli's site runs Thursday, November 12, from 6 to 8 p.m., with RSVPs taken through the gallery's link. The show runs through January 9, 2027.
Mouraux Durand-Ruel opened its second show on November 5. The World We Keep Afloat brings together fifteen works by Lucy and Jorge Orta, covering their Antarctica, Amazonia, and Connector Mobile Village projects, and it is on view through January 9, 2027. In the same building, Gallery Henoch shows Eric Zener's Liminal Spaces from November 12 through December 5.
From there, the evening runs well beyond West 25th. Shows opening Thursday, November 12, listed south to north:
- Hauser & Wirth, 443 West 18th Street. Mike Kelley's Jerry Meandering and Harmony Korine's UX LAM, with an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Both run through January 16, 2027.
- Hales, 547 West 20th Street. Virginia Jaramillo's Pause in Time, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.
- Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street. Georg Baselitz's Meine Schule, through January 23, 2027.
- Skarstedt, 547 West 25th Street. Eric Fischl's In Pursuit of Pleasure, through December 19.
- Gazelli Art House, 545 West 25th Street. Harold Cohen, with the 6 to 8 p.m. preview.
- Gallery Henoch, 555 West 25th Street. Eric Zener's Liminal Spaces.
- Greene Naftali, 508 West 26th Street. Palace of Desire on the ground floor, and Lubaina Himid's Low Key Shrines: French Paintings and German Ceramics on the eighth floor.
One more show opens a day later. 303 Gallery at 555 West 21st Street opens Doug Aitken's Howl on Friday, November 13, and it runs through December 19.
Bookends on Either Side of the Walk
Two recent openings make it easy to plan the evening around the gallery route.
At the start, the Danish coffee company La Cabra opened its flagship on October 16 at 515 West 18th Street, between Tenth and Eleventh avenues, inside Lantern House. Eater NY notes that the interiors take cues from Denmark's IC3 train and that the brand is known for its cardamom buns. It is on the same stretch of West 18th Street as Hauser & Wirth, where the night's first receptions begin.
At the end, Bar CC took over the former Mel's space at 85 Tenth Avenue, near West 15th Street, and opened September 25. The walk-in-only bar comes from chef Melissa Rodriguez, restaurateur Jeff Katz, and Tao Group Hospitality, and it sits next door to their Crane Club. According to Eater NY, Harrison Ginsberg runs the drinks, and Rodriguez serves six small bar snacks, including a "baby" burger.
The Week After Opening Night
Most of these shows run well past Thursday. The Gazelli, Mouraux Durand-Ruel, and Hauser & Wirth shows all stay up into January, so a quieter weekday visit is easy to fit in. Gazelli's New York hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with Sunday and Monday by appointment.
The next Thursday has its own reception. LEE & BAE at 530 West 24th Street opens Sungjae Lee's Her Real Secret on November 19, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m. The show runs through February 9, 2027. The following evening, Friday, November 20, at 5 p.m., Hauser & Wirth's 18th Street gallery hosts a book launch and talk with Es Devlin and Sarah Douglas.
If you live near the gallery blocks and want to know how this year's changes on West 20th and West 25th Streets relate to the value of your own building, the Miller Schackman team knows these streets well. Get your free home valuation, and we'll take you through what's selling near you.
