6 Chelsea Galleries Worth Visiting Right Now: Your Spring 2026 Art Walk Guide

I spent last Saturday afternoon walking Chelsea's gallery district from 19th Street up to 26th, and the energy right now is exactly what you'd want from late February in New York—serious exhibitions that reward your attention without demanding an art history degree to appreciate them.

If you've been waiting for a good reason to spend a few hours gallery-hopping, this is it. Here's what's actually worth your time, in a logical walking order.

Start Here: Galerie Lelong — Ursula von Rydingsvard

528 West 26th Street | Through March 28 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

The first thing you notice about Ursula von Rydingsvard's work is the smell—cedar, unmistakably, filling the gallery before you even see the sculptures. The second thing is the scale. These pieces are massive, built from cedar beams that the artist has been working with for over five decades.

What she's doing feels almost architectural. The sculptures rise from the floor like weathered monuments or ancient wooden vessels enlarged to impossible dimensions. You can see the handwork—the marks of cutting and stacking—but the overall effect feels ancient, almost geological. Several drawings accompany the sculptures, and they reveal how she thinks in layers, building forms through accumulation.

Her titles are in Polish, which gives the work an additional layer of mystery. This is immersive sculpture that changes as you move around it. Budget 15–20 minutes here.

Walk Four Blocks South: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery — Beauford Delaney

100 11th Avenue | Through April 4 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

James Baldwin wrote that he learned about light from Beauford Delaney, and standing in front of these paintings, you understand why. This exhibition focuses on Delaney's Paris years (1954–1968), when he moved from the figurative work of his New York period into pure abstraction.

The paintings glow. That's the only way to describe them—swirling fields of yellow, blue, and white that seem to generate their own illumination. Delaney was dealing with mental illness and isolation during these years, and the work channels that into something almost transcendent. The "light contained in everything" from the exhibition title isn't metaphorical; these canvases actually seem to emit it.

The gallery has also created a playlist of the music Delaney listened to while working, which you can access while viewing. It's a nice touch that gives you a sense of his headspace.

Cut East to 26th Street: Karma — Dike Blair

549 West 26th Street | Through March 28 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

Dike Blair's work operates in the space between painting and sculpture, image and object. At Karma, he's showing recent pieces that look like gestural abstractions from across the room but reveal themselves to be something stranger up close—paintings on shaped panels, some freestanding, that play with depth and flatness in genuinely unexpected ways.

The palette is restrained—whites, pale blues, silvery grays—but the surfaces are active. Blair's marks feel spontaneous, like they happened in a single session, but you know from the precision of the forms that there's calculation behind the apparent casualness. It's the kind of work that art students will be studying for years.

Karma itself is worth visiting even if you're not familiar with the artists—they have excellent taste and the space is beautiful.

Head North on 10th Avenue: Hauser & Wirth 18th Street — Glenn Ligon

443 West 18th Street | Through April 4 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

Glenn Ligon's "Late at night, early in the morning, at noon" is a two-part exhibition of works on paper that meditates on the color blue—specifically, what he calls "the emotional, historical, and cultural inflections" of the hue. If you know Ligon's work, you know he doesn't do simple. These are densely layered compositions that incorporate text, abstraction, and references to Black cultural history.

What's striking is the range of blues he achieves—indigo, ultramarine, cerulean, and shades that don't have names, built up through repeated processes of painting, scraping, and printing. The text fragments are characteristic Ligon: lines from literature and popular culture that take on new weight through repetition and obscuring.

This is demanding work that rewards slow looking. Don't rush it.

Continue to 24th Street: Lisson Gallery — John Akomfrah

508 West 24th Street | Through April 11 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

John Akomfrah's "Listening All Night To The Rain" is the US premiere of a major multi-channel film installation that traces independence movements in Africa and Asia from the 1940s through the 1970s. If you've seen Akomfrah's previous work (like "Purple" at the New Museum a few years back), you know he creates immersive environments where archival footage, original cinematography, and sound design merge into something overwhelming in the best way.

The piece runs on a loop, so you can enter at any point, but plan to spend at least 20 minutes to get the full experience. The scale is theatrical—multiple screens filling the gallery space—and the subject matter connects directly to contemporary conversations about decolonization and historical memory.

Also at this Lisson location: Anish Kapoor's mirror works from 2010 to present. Worth a look if you're into that kind of thing, though Akomfrah is the main attraction.

Finish at 20th Street: Jack Shainman Gallery — Alexis Rockman

513 West 20th Street | Through February 28 | Free | Tue–Sat 10am–6pm

This show closes soon—February 28—so prioritize it if you're following this route in the next few days. Alexis Rockman's first solo exhibition with Jack Shainman features new paintings and works on paper that continue his long engagement with environmental themes and the natural world.

Rockman's work has always had a speculative, almost science-fictional quality—he paints future ecosystems, hybrid creatures, landscapes transformed by climate change. These new pieces feel more urgent than his earlier work, less speculative and more documentary of a world already in crisis. The detail is extraordinary; he works from scientific research but renders it with a painterly sensibility that keeps it from feeling like illustration.

If you can't make it before the 28th, don't worry—Shainman has excellent programming year-round.

The Practical Stuff

Your Route: Start at von Rydingsvard (26th Street), walk south to Delaney (11th Avenue at 19th), cut back east to Karma (26th), head north on 10th to Ligon (18th), double back to Akomfrah (24th), finish at Rockman (20th). Total walking time: about 25 minutes. Gallery time: 2–3 hours depending on how long you linger.

Best Time to Go: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am–5pm. Avoid opening receptions unless you like crowds (check gallery websites—many Thursday evenings have openings).

Food Nearby: Cookshop (Tenth Avenue at 20th) for a sit-down lunch, Los Tacos No. 1 in Chelsea Market for something faster, or grab coffee at Blue Bottle on 15th.

Beginner-Friendly Factor: High. All these galleries have helpful staff who won't make you feel like you're trespassing. Free admission everywhere. No appointments needed.

Nadia's Pick

If you only have time for one: Ursula von Rydingsvard at Galerie Lelong. The work is physically imposing in a way that photographs can't capture, and the cedar scent creates an immersive experience you won't get from looking at images online. Plus, the exhibition just opened—it's fresh, and you can say you saw it early.

But honestly? Do all six. Chelsea is at its best right now, before the spring art fair madness begins. The galleries are quiet, the work is strong, and you'll leave with a genuine sense of what's happening in contemporary art at this particular moment.

Have a gallery you think I should cover? Email me at nadia@artandabout.blog.