Maps aren’t going to do you any good here. Seriously. The real art scene in New York City happens somewhere between a bodega, a fourth-floor walk up with a broken buzzer, and a warehouse where you’re not even sure if you’re at the right address. Then, suddenly—boom—you’re surrounded by cognitive overload in the best way.
Discoveries are random; following someone with spiked hair down a back street, taking a couple wrong turns, then stumbling into an ice sculpture piece with a live performer playing a violin.
Here are our picks for the best Underground Art Galleries in NYC.
Urban Archaeology: The Lost Art
The gallery scene in SoHo started in the abandoned factories that lined the streets after the collapse of the fiscal wreckage of the 1970s. In 2008, we had pop-up galleries in vacant storefronts. COVID created weird digital-physical hybrids that sprang from nowhere. Creativity thrives when economies collapse—has been that way since financial institutions began.
Bushwick’s industrial zones are home to large-scale art installations perched on empty concrete floors, while Chinatown has basement venues too odd for conventional spaces to host performances. Queens’ warehouses have become the new go-to spot for immigrant artists overlooked by Manhattan galleries.
Tips for Navigating the Perpendicular Universe
Hunting for underground art galleries in New York City takes serious detective work, a dash of social luck, and a pinch of clairvoyance. One day there is a website—poof!—next day it’s gone. Those secret Instagram accounts? They will block you just as the artist you’ve been following for years announces something big. Maybe it’s a text message at 6PM with a cryptic address for a show starting at 7PM in a neighborhood you’ve never heard of!
Traveling becomes this whole ridiculous game. Art chasers in Manhattan often try to cover impossible distances at dramatic lengths. The logistics of getting around town are a nightmare! You want to experience that experimental noise thing in Ridgewood at 9 PM, time travel to Red Hook for the most intense projection display by midnight, and then go to this warehouse in Sunset Park where people paint until the sun rises.
The subway experience stifles your ambitious dreams with its late-night schedule. Rideshare apps punishes you by simply increasing their already mountainous surge. The true veterans just suck it up and car rental Midtown NYC rental spot. It’s worth the gas money for those three openings on opposite sides of the city.
Places You Never Imagined
Pioneer Works (in Red Hook)
This enormous former iron works site exemplifies the open spaces present in NYC. Established in 2012 by the artist Dustin Yellin, Pioneer Works has purposefully disrupted the boundaries found in purpose-built exhibition spaces. To create a space where art, science, music, and technology coexist under dramatically high ceilings and large expanses of natural light. Pioneer Works host ambitious exhibitions that could never fit in a traditional gallery. They are known for hosting large-scale exhibitions that people can enter and walk through.
Their Sunday Sessions have people visiting from all over the boroughs, and many of these people will rent cars NYC just to check out their Sunday Sessions because transit options in this waterfront neighborhood are very limited. For visitors to Red Hook, the distance traveled to get here, and the dislocation of this industrial zone, are as much a part of the experience.
Socrates Sculpture Park (Long Island City)
Originally an illegal dumping site along the river, under sculptor Mark di Suvero’s stewardship it has become an open-air museum. The Park is open to the public every day of the year and is an open space for artists to show works of art large in scale.
As galleries in NYC adapt to their ever shifting presence in urban landscapes, the Park, like so many others, has undergone a transformation. The neglected, abandoned space of the past is now repurposed as a site for creative experimentation through sculpture. Their artist residency program provides sculptors with flexibility and resources that allow them to experiment with public art in ways they would never be able to do in a traditional gallery. Imagine attempting to suspend a two ton piece of recycled metal from a ceiling in SoHo!
Living Gallery (Bushwick)
This truly community-focused space has a range of exhibitions, workshops, poet readings and skill-shares that welcome anyone and everyone. No formal art education or degrees necessary. Just real curiosity! The Living Gallery hours are convenient too and allows art lovers to enjoy an authentic art experience in New York City. RealCar can get you there in style.
On a Tuesday afternoon, you might waltz into a live performance piece. On another day you might take a meditative stroll through textile installations, contemplating their place within art. The ever-changing underground art galleries NYC exhibitions reflect Bushwick’s stature as the incubator of art yet to be absorbed into the commercial mainstream- whether its work too raw, too real, or simply too out there for Chelsea’s opaque white box aesthetic.
Silent Barn (Former Space)
Despite being closed now, the legendary DIY gallery operated as an “open space” for decades. Operating legally and illegally at different times, Silent Barn created totally open environments to accommodate experimental music, visual art installations, and grassroots activism.
Its location in Bushwick had living spaces for artists in addition to performance spaces. This made it more of a living art ecosystem than simply a place to exhibit.
What say you?
Thoughts on the Underground Art Galleries in NYC?
Let’s hear it!
