A Winter Guide to Chelsea Art Galleries: January 2026 Exhibitions in NYC
With winter in full force, Chelsea’s art galleries in NYC offer a warm, inspiring way to spend an afternoon. We’ve gathered a selection of timely exhibitions to see in January, all within easy walking distance of one another.
Gagosian: Jeff Koons “Porcelain Series”
With three different locations in Chelsea alone, Gagosian is a major player in New York’s art scene. Head to Gagosian on W. 24th St. now through February 28, 2026, to see Jeff Koons’ “Porcelain Series.” The exciting exhibition features new and recent sculptures and paintings, on view together for the first time as the “Porcelain Series.”
Best known for his sculptures depicting balloon animals, Koons uses this exhibition to explore everything from Greek mythology (Aphrodite) to old-fashioned lovers. The large-scale porcelain pieces use mirror-polished stainless steel coated in layers of transparent color. The porcelain works are complemented by a few of Koons’ striking oil-on-canvas paintings, which further play into the series’ reflective theme using aluminum leaf accents. 541 W. 24th St., New York, NY 10011
Pace: Gideon Appah “Swimmers and Surfers”
Artist Gideon Appah’s first solo show with Pace in New York (running January 16-February 28, 2026) is the perfect antidote to a cold NYC winter. The main focus of the show is Appah’s “Swimmers and Surfers” series, which draws inspiration from surfers, fishermen, swimmers, and seaside architecture at Busua Beach and Kokrobite in the artist’s native Ghana.
Feel transported by depictions of surfboards, relaxation, and swimming that incorporate elements of Fauvism and Surrealism, and engage the audience in deeper questions of identity, freedom, and form. 540 W. 25th St., New York, NY 10001
Hauser & Wirth: Louise Bourgeois “Gathering Wool”
Louise Bourgeois’ extensive “Gathering Wool” exhibition is on display at Hauser & Wirth’s Chelsea gallery through April 18, 2026. Bourgeois, who enjoyed a storied seven-decade career before her passing in 2010, offers a series of sculptures, reliefs, works on paper, and more, as curated by Philip Larratt-Smith. Start on the first floor, where you’ll view Twosome (1991), a work in which a small tank on a track moves endlessly in and out of a larger tank, symbolizing the symbiotic mother-child relationship.
The exhibition’s title piece Gathering Wool draws its inspiration from the colloquial expression, which calls out to rumination, daydreaming, and letting your thoughts wander, and takes shape in the form of seven wooden spheres arranged in a circle in front of a semicircular, four-panel screen. The fifth floor features mostly abstract works, portrayed in vertical progressions and stacked forms, a shoutout from the artist about trying to organize the chaos of her emotions. Many other multimedia artworks are on display, in this thought-provoking, can’t-miss show. 542 W. 22nd St., New York, NY 10011
Lisson Gallery: Sean Scully “Tower”
Lisson Gallery presents “Tower,” a solo exhibition from painter Sean Scully, on view at its W. 24th St. gallery through January 24, 2026. The series centers on Scully’s “Tower” series, paintings pieced together from multiple joined panels, made using materials like wood, felt, and aluminum. The works call out to famous tower structures, like the World Trade Center and the Tower of Babel, which invoke themes of collapse and reconstruction, as well as art movements like Quattrocento Italy, Analytic Cubism, and Lucio Fontana’s pierced surfaces.
The exhibition also includes eight paintings on copper and three stone sculptures. Altogether, the show seeks to examine concepts that have defined Scully’s five-decade career, such as the relationship between form and feeling. 508 W. 24th St., New York, NY 10011
Petzel: Allan McCollum “A Moment in Time: Plaster Surrogates, 1991-1993”
On view January 15-February 28, 2026, Petzel presents “A Moment in Time: Plaster Surrogates, 1991–1993,” a focused presentation by American artist Allan McCollum. While marking McCollum’s twelfth solo exhibition with the gallery, this show is Petzel’s first-ever presentation of his “Plaster Surrogates” series. The exhibition brings together seven groupings of works, each comprising between five and 40 objects.
Cast from molds and finished by hand, the “Plaster Surrogates” series explores the tension between uniqueness and mass production, as well as the blurred boundaries between originals and copies. Created between 1991 and 1993, this historical body of work reflects McCollum’s long-running investigation into seriality, display, and the systems through which art acquires meaning and value. 520 W. 25th St., New York, NY 10001
Other Galleries to Visit in Chelsea
• Sikkema Malloy Jenkins–This contemporary NYC art gallery has plans for a solo exhibition in January from American artist Yashua Klos, with dates and details to be announced. 530 W. 22nd St., New York NY 10011
• Gladstone–A January exhibition for this modern and contemporary art gallery’s Chelsea location is still being finalized. 515 W. 24th St., New York, NY 10011
• Nicolas Auvray Gallery–The contemporary gallery spotlights artists across media from photography to painting, and drawing to sculpture. Details on a January exhibition are coming soon. 522 W. 23rd St., New York, NY 10011
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