A local's guide to art life in downtown NYC.

Our list/map of the coolest art spaces with the warmest welcomes. Plus the neighborhood places where art locals go to eat, drink, shop, and relax.

Art SpacesEast Village

Grey Art Museum

NYU shows us how a university museum is done, with superbly-curated, context-driven shows right in the middle of historic Cooper Square.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Andrew Edlin Gallery

See well-known and new-to-the-scene “Outsider” artists whose personal mythologies, spiritual visions, and non-conformist approaches will open your mind – and your heart.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Elliott Templeton Fine Arts

Highly covetable, high aesthetics art in a two-room Henry Street gallery named for a fictional gay art dealer. You’re going to want to move in.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Below Grand

In a display window and closet in a Chinese kitchen supply store on Orchard Street and a storefront on Allen Street, artist-and-curator rebels stage experimental shows that stretch art world rules.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Miguel Abreu

Poetic, philosophically-minded art in a sun-flooded storefront on Orchard and a cavernous floor-thru loft on Eldridge. The light in the space meets the light in the work.

Art SpacesNoLita

Company Gallery

Get immersed in utopian futures with feminist and queer art and artists at this graffiti-covered street-level gallery with subterranean speakeasy.

Eat & DrinkLower East Side

Michaeli

Don’t miss this Israeli-style bakery, loved by LES locals for their burekas, babka, challah. The real star? Rugelach.

Art SpacesLower East Side

www.willshott

Meet the art dealer whose jewelry has been worn by hip-hop legends and is now collaborating with wave-making contemporary artists.

ShopLower East Side

Bluestocking Cooperative

Began as a woman's bookstore in 1999 and is now NYC’s only queer, trans, and sex worker-run, cooperatively-owned bookstore.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Reena Spaulings Fine Art

This brainchild of a collective of artists is named after a fictitious art world It Girl, and presents rule-breaking, sensual art with a DIY approach.

Eat & DrinkChinatown

Dim Sum Palace

Dates and family diners hunker down in this old-world meets new-world Cantonese parlour, with 200+ seats. Gallerists sometimes host opening dinners here.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Westwood Gallery

A neighborhood-embedded gallery showcasing artists whose work will transport you to the factory lofts and artist’s studios of iconic ‘70s and ‘80s Bowery.

Eat & DrinkEast Village

Abraço

Echoing the old school coffee bars of Spain and Italy, this place has been serving the neighborhood since 2007. Go for the olive oil cake and coffee in classic NYC cups.

ShopLower East Side

Only New York

The brainchild of NYC skateboarders. Pick up a piece of cult memorabilia. The kind of souvenirs you want on your desk - MTA desk light? Garbage can for your pens? Plus the latest apparel collections, special collabs, and in-store exclusives.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Blade Study

Internet explorers, anime theorists, and memetic mythmakers are looking to escape the algorithm inside this tiny, but mighty, storefront gallery.

Art SpacesLower East Side

Foreign & Domestic

Process is worshipped in this bunker-like basement gallery, which champions local and international artists and the immigrant-powered spirit of the LES.

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