Art Week NYC Spreads Its First Edition Across the City's Own Galleries

From November 11 to 14, Art Week NYC runs in more than 80 galleries and 32 institutions rather than a fair hall. Here is what it is, who runs it, and what is on view that week.

By Exqz GuideOctober 24, 20263 min read

Photography by Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Jason O’Rear, Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Jason Keen, © Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All Rights Reserved. Photo: David Heald, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York © SRGF. Photo by David Heald., Ben Hider, El Museo del Barrio, Photo by David Joseph., Installation view of Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art, 2026. El Museo del Barrio, New York. Photograph by Matthew Sherman/Courtesy of El Museo del Barrio, New York., Mary King, Needlework Picture (Tree of Life), 1754. Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library, Delaware, Bequest of Henry Francis du Pont, 1966.0978, David Zwirner, Installation view, Nate Lowman: Hanging Out, David Zwirner, New York, 2026, Yoshitomo Nara in his studio, 2026. Photograph: Keita Saiki, Artwork: Yoshitomo Nara, Installation view, Eric N. Mack: You Red The Shirt Off My Back, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY, September 10 – October 24, 2026. © Eric N. Mack. Photo: Steven Probert Studio., Installation view, Eric N. Mack: You Red The Shirt Off My Back, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, NY, September 10 – October 24, 2026. Photo: Steven Probert Studio., Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, Fagend Study, Prototype, 1976, cast aluminum painted with enamel, 10 x 18 1/2 x 9 1/4 in., White Cube Gallery. Photo: Nicholas Venezia, Matthew Sherman, Doris Salcedo, Grains of Sorrow, 2023-26. Rice, hair, resin and fluorocarbon coated thread © Doris Salcedo, Van Doren Waxter, © Charles Benton, Charles Benton

Art Week NYC, a new annual gathering for contemporary art, runs for the first time from November 11 to 14, 2026. It is not a fair. There is no single hall: programming takes place in galleries, museums, nonprofits and other venues across New York, with more than 80 galleries in Chelsea, Tribeca, the Lower East Side and the Upper East Side, and 32 museums, nonprofits, art schools and biennials.

The week is presented by Artforum, ARTnews and Art in America. Three days are given to gallery openings and neighborhood activations, with walking tours of the four gallery districts. ARTnews and Art in America run a Midtown hub with talks on the art market. Participating institutions include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, the Brooklyn Museum, The Frick Collection, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Queens Museum and The High Line. Bloomberg Connects publishes free digital guides to the exhibitions.

Some programs are open to the public, others are invitation-only, and some require an advance RSVP because of capacity. VIP credentials go directly to invited guests.

The week overlaps with the ADAA Fair (formerly The Art Show) at the Park Avenue Armory, where 63 member galleries show. Its preview gala, benefiting the Whitney, is Thursday, November 12. Public days run from Friday, November 13, through Monday, November 16, with tickets sold through ARTSVP.

Photo: Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Jason O’Rear

A day of talks at the New Museum

On Saturday, November 14, from 11am to 6pm, the New Museum and Artforum co-present Site Conditions: Five Talks on Art and the City in the New Museum Theater at 235 Bowery. Artists, architects, filmmakers, critics and writers will cover the design of new museums, artists moving into film, the economics of working in New York, and machine intelligence in the studio. The museum says speakers and tickets will follow in the coming weeks.

The museum reopened on March 21, 2026, after a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA with Cooper Robertson. On view are Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony, the largest museum survey of Jafa's work to date, and Diego Marcon: Arrivederci, Piggies!, his first solo museum exhibition in the city. Adult admission is $28.

Photo: Courtesy New Museum. Photo: Jason Keen

Museum shows

Guggenheim, 1071 Fifth Avenue. Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You fills the rotunda with 42 works tracing the life of one unnamed federal agent. It is the first monographic show by a photography-based artist in the rotunda. Closed Tuesday, November 10, and closes at 3pm on Saturday, November 14. $30.
El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue. Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art, the only New York stop for a retrospective of the queer Chicano artist from Los Angeles. Thursday to Sunday, suggested $9.
American Folk Art Museum, 2 Lincoln Square. Locating Girlhood, on early American schoolgirl art. Free; open Wednesday to Sunday, 11:30am to 6pm, closing at 5pm on Thursday, November 12.

Gallery shows

David Zwirner, Chelsea. Yoshitomo Nara's first solo show with the gallery: thirteen large bronze heads at 533 West 19th Street, paintings and drawings at 537 West 20th Street.
Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street. Claes Oldenburg: Six Themes, with a walkthrough by Rachel Harrison and Alex Kitnick on Saturday, November 14, at 11am.
White Cube, 1002 Madison Avenue. Doris Salcedo, opening November 13, centered on Grains of Sorrow, made of rice, hair, resin and coated thread.
Van Doren Waxter, 23 East 73rd Street. Zoe Longfield: A World of One's Own closes November 14, the day of the ADAA Upper East Side Gallery Walk, 12 to 5pm.