17 Best Sights in Chelsea, New York City

This former Nabisco plant—where the first Oreos were baked in 1912—now houses more than 50 shops, food vendors, and sit-down restaurants. Probably the biggest draw are the food kiosks (some with counter seating), including favorite taco spot Los Tacos No. 1, Israeli-based sandwich spot Miznon, Amy's Bread, Berlin Currywurst, Ninth Street Espresso, and so much more. Also look for an Anthropologie store, an outpost of Pearl River Mart, a wine bar, upscale groceries, teas, spices, gift baskets, kitchen supplies, and one of New York City's last independent bookstores (Posman Books). The market's funky industrial design—a tangle of glass and metal for an awning, a factory pipe converted into an indoor waterfall—complements the eclectic assortment of shops, but the narrow space can get very crowded. A downstairs level has a few additional food stands as well as bathrooms. There is some seating inside and outside along West 15th Street, but if the weather's nice, take your goodies to the High Line.

What this small three-gallery museum in the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) lacks in size and effects it more than makes up for in substance and style. You might not find interactive mannequins, elaborate displays, or overcrowded galleries at the self-declared "most fashionable museum in New York City," but you will find carefully curated, fun, and interesting exhibits. The Fashion and Textile History Gallery, on the main floor, provides context with a rotating selection of historically and artistically significant objects from the museum’s permanent collection of more than 50,000 garments and accessories (exhibits change every six months). The real draws, though, are the special exhibitions in the lower-level gallery. Gallery FIT, also on the main floor, is dedicated to student and faculty exhibitions.

In September 2019, Pace moved into a new eight-story building at  540 West 25th Street, turning the gallery more into an art center than just a gallery. The impressive roster of talent represented here includes a variety of upper-echelon artists, sculptors, and photographers, such as Richard Avedon, Alexander Calder, Tara Donovan, Chuck Close, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Rauschenberg. Pace has two spaces in Chelsea, including  510 West 25th Street.

This sports-and-entertainment complex along the Hudson River between 17th and 23rd Streets, a phenomenal example of adaptive reuse, is the size of four 80-story buildings laid out flat. There's pretty much every kind of sports activity happening both inside and out, including golf (check out the multitier, all-weather outdoor driving range), sailing classes, ice-skating, rock climbing, soccer, bowling, gymnastics, and basketball. Plus there's a spa, elite sport-specific training, and a bowling alley. Chelsea Piers is also the jumping-off point for some of the city's boat tours and dinner cruises.

Built in 1840 for merchant and developer Don Alonzo Cushman, this string of redbrick beauties between 9th and 10th Avenues represents some of the country's best examples of Greek Revival row houses. Original details include small wreath-encircled attic windows, deeply recessed doorways with brownstone frames, and striking iron balustrades and fences. Note the pineapples, a traditional symbol of welcome, on top of the black iron newels in front of No. 416.

Zwirner is one of the most prominent figures in the world of contemporary art, and his several galleries around the world show multimedia work by big-name, Instagram-friendly artists including Richard Serra, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, Gordon Matta-Clark, Yayoi Kusama, and Alice Neel. The sleek modern building on 20th Street has two floors of exhibition space, and there's a complex of buildings on West 19th Street a block away, as well as another gallery on the Upper East Side.

This internationally renowned modern gallery has two large Chelsea branches (the other is at  522 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues) as well as three galleries on the Upper East Side and more than 10 outposts in cities around the world. Perhaps the most powerful dealer in the business, Gagosian Gallery shows works by heavy hitters such as Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Urs Fischer, Richard Serra, and pop-art icon Roy Lichtenstein, in addition to less well-known artists.

The challenging installations at this large gallery include works by many Latin American artists. Look for art by Yoko Ono, Alfredo Jaar, Andy Goldsworthy, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Hélio Oiticica, Nalini Malani, and Petah Coyne.

The international roster of artists at this gallery's two large Chelsea locations includes painter Ahmed Alsoudani, sculptor Anish Kapoor, photographer Sharon Lockhart, and multimedia artists Matthew Barney and Cecilia Edefalk. The other gallery is at  530 West 21st Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues.

The vast 36,000-square-foot space is an ideal venue for sprawling exhibits and large-scale art projects, the opposite of its narrow town-house location on the Upper East Side. Some of the contemporary artists, both established and emerging, include Jason Rhoades, Dieter Roth, Paul McCarthy, and Eva Hesse.

After being established in 1984 in Washington, D.C., the Jack Shainman Gallery moved to New York's East Village and then SoHo, landing in Chelsea in 1997. The original 20th Street space has been augmented by another at  524 West 24th as well as a vast ex-schoolhouse space in Kinderhook, New York. The galleries all show emerging and established artists such as Nick Cave, El Anatsui, Carrie Mae Weems, Tallur L. N., and Kerry James Marshall.

Some of the hottest talents in contemporary art are shown here, including Cindy Sherman, Olaf Breuning, Louise Lawlor, Trevor Paglen, Camille Henrot, and B. Wurtz.

Contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and video works by an impressive array of international artists are on display in this light-filled space with high ceilings and a seasonal sculpture garden. Among the artists are Viola Frey, known for her heroic-scale ceramic male and female figures, and a strong group of young artists embarking on their first solo shows.

The first Black-owned gallery in New York, Nicola Vassell swung open its doors in May 2021 to great fanfare in the art world. The gallery's focus is on discourse that widens the lens of history and about the future of art with exhibitions by a diverse group of international artists. The space shows a cross-discipline of works using the mediums of film, painting, sculpture, and video installations.

SoHo pioneer Paula Cooper moved to Chelsea in 1996 and, after moving her masterpieces around the neighborhood, has finally settled into a stark-white, high-ceilinged space that's perfect for viewing art. There are now two galleries (the other is at  521 West 21st Street) that showcase the works of artists such as Carl Andre, Sam Durant, Hans Haacke, Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin.

The first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to posters, this spot was opened in 2019 by a group of poster enthusiasts who saw a gaping hole in the city's museum scene and decided to, ahem, poster over it. The museum hosts a series of moving exhibitions. Past shows have included the work of Czech art nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha and 1970s Blaxploitation movie posters, among other themes.

With two floors of exhibition space, the shows here can spread out. Look for innovative modern work in a variety of media, by the likes of Olafur Eliasson, Uta Barth, Ernesto Neto, Lisa Oppenheim, and Sarah Sze, who represented the United States at the 55th Venice Biennale.