One Thursday, One Window: How to Walk West Chelsea's November Gallery Openings

Can you see the season's biggest Chelsea shows on their opening night when they all start at the same hour? Tonight is Thursday, November 5. David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, Jack Shainman, Sean Kelly and Karma all hold opening receptions from 6 to 8 p.m. Artwrld's New York openings calendar lists more than fifteen Chelsea galleries starting shows today. Gladstone, Paula Cooper, Petzel, Tanya Bonakdar, Casey Kaplan and Miles McEnery are among them.

The district has a short evening and a lot of floor space, so the route decides what you see. The shows below are listed in walking order from 18th Street north. Use them to plan tonight, or come back on a quieter Tuesday.

Start south, with a cardamom bun

The walk works best from the bottom up, and the newest place to start is two blocks below the first gallery. Danish coffee company La Cabra opened its flagship at 515 West 18th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, on October 16. According to Eater NY, the shop is in Lantern House beside the High Line, its interior takes cues from Denmark's IC3 train, and the company is known for its cardamom buns.

Arriving from the Eighth Avenue side? Eater NY's September openings roundup reports that MadDough Bagels, a family-run shop, opened at 261 West 19th Street on September 12. Either one gets you to 19th Street a little before six.

19th to 22nd: the early anchors

David Zwirner, 533 West 19th Street and 537 West 20th Street. Zwirner's Yoshitomo Nara exhibition fills both buildings, so it covers two blocks on its own. It runs November 5 through December 12, with an opening reception tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. That closing date comes earlier than most on this route, so it may be the one to see while the crowd is thick.

Jack Shainman Gallery, 513 West 20th Street. This is Donyel Ivy-Royal's first solo show with the gallery. By the time the rain comes, we will be home brings together paintings, drawings and an installation. It runs November 5 through December 19, and the reception is from 6 to 8 p.m.

Paula Cooper, 534 West 21st Street. Claes Oldenburg's Six Themes opens today.

Hauser & Wirth, 542 West 22nd Street. This is the night's reopening. The five-story Selldorf-designed gallery has been closed for installation and reopens today with two exhibitions: Zeng Fanzhi, and Cristina Iglesias, Possible Matter. The reception runs from 6 to 8 p.m. Hauser & Wirth's 22nd Street page says the shows are free and no advance booking is needed. Both run until January 16.

Miles McEnery is on the same block, with Inka Essenhigh at 515 West 22nd Street and Karel Funk at 525 West 22nd Street, both opening today.

24th to 26th: where the evening ends

North of 22nd, the openings bunch up on fewer blocks.

1. Gladstone, 515 West 24th Street. Robert H. Colescott, Cairo, opens today.
2. Pace, 540 and 510 West 25th Street. Three shows, one reception: Lucas Samaras, Boxes and Reconstructions; Li Hei Di, the year of mud; and Elmgreen & Dragset, TRANSITION. Artwrld lists the joint reception tonight from 6 to 8 p.m., the day before the shows open to the public on November 6. The Samaras show pairs his box sculptures with fabric paintings from 1979 and stays up until January 23. Li Hei Di's new paintings close December 19.
3. Galerie Lelong, 528 West 26th Street. Mildred Thompson: Cosmos Calling opened October 29. It includes her Music of the Spheres paintings and works from the Heliocentric Series.
4. Berry Campbell, 524 West 26th Street. The gallery's Elaine de Kooning exhibition also opened October 29, with paintings and works on paper from four decades of her career.
5. Karma, 549 West 26th Street. Ouattara Watts, reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

The two 26th Street shows opened on October 29, a week before this Thursday's group, so they are already settled in. That makes them a calmer stop at the end of the walk, after the receptions to the south.

Kehinde Wiley's What the Light Becomes is at Sean Kelly, 475 Tenth Avenue, well north of the main cluster. Its reception is also tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. If you want to fit it in, go there first or last.

The second wave, one week later

If November 5 feels like too much, the calendar gives you a second Thursday. Gagosian opens Georg Baselitz, Meine Schule, at 555 West 24th Street on November 12. That same evening, Gladstone opens its second fall show, Je Pense, at 530 West 21st Street, with a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.

A few shows start between the two Thursdays. Lisson opened Myth Migration at 508 West 24th Street and Yu Hong's Field of Asura at 504 West 24th Street on November 4. Luhring Augustine opens Jason Moran's STACKS at 531 West 24th Street on November 6. Together they make 24th Street a good second walk, starting at 504 and ending at Gagosian.

Dinner after eight

Receptions end at eight, and two of this fall's openings are close enough for dinner afterward.

According to Eater NY, Bar CC opened at 85 Tenth Avenue on September 25. Chef Melissa Rodriguez, restaurateur Jeff Katz and Tao Group Hospitality are behind it, and Harrison Ginsberg runs the beverage program. It is a short walk south of 19th Street.

To the east, Bar Lento opened on October 1 at 158 Eighth Avenue near West 18th Street. Eater NY describes it as a Verona-inspired wine bar and bistro, with a brick-framed room, a secret garden inside, and Italian whites, bubbles and pét-nats from Sardinia to Veneto.

For something to take home, Chelsea Market at 75 Ninth Avenue has two fall arrivals. Eater NY's September roundup reports that Alleva Dairy returned on September 13, and that owner Karen King has brought back the Italian deli's recipes at a stall next to Fat Witch Bakery. Eater NY's August roundup reports that Oishii opened its first standalone retail kiosk there on August 20. It sells strawberries, preserves and pastries, including sweets developed with Lady M and pastry chef Yoshie Nakanishi.

When the crowds have gone

Opening night is the busiest time to see these shows. Most of them stay up well past it. Here are the closing dates for shows where they are published, in order:

Most of these shows close the week before Christmas, so the middle of December is the last easy weekend to catch several at once. Hauser & Wirth and Pace's Samaras show run into January, so they are still there after the holidays.

For daytime visits, Pace's New York galleries are open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Galerie Lelong keeps the same hours. GalleriesNow lists the same schedule for Berry Campbell and Jack Shainman. A weekday walk before the mid-December closings takes the same route with more room in front of each piece.

Chelsea homes often hold art collections built up over years of walks like this one. When it comes time to sell, the art on the walls is part of the home's story and part of the preparation work. If you are getting a Chelsea residence ready for market, or helping settle a family estate, Eileen Robert and Paolo Valois-Lopes can talk you through presentation, staging and timing. Start with a conversation about how much your home is worth.