From farmhouse salons to townhouse showrooms, our edit of the best art spaces NYC has to offer invites you to explore creativity in unexpected settings before summer ends.

Some places announce themselves loudly. Others wait quietly—inviting you to lean in, look closer, and notice what has been there all along. This week’s BKLS List is for the latter. These are not “hidden gems” [a phrase too tired for their elegance]. They are quietly curated spaces—each with its own distinct rhythm—where art, design, and purpose live not behind velvet ropes, but within lived-in walls and intentional worlds.

From an 18th-century farmhouse in Amagansett to a repurposed apple warehouse in the Hudson Valley, these seven spaces will add layers of texture to your summer and carry you into autumn.

1. speaklow

📍 Location: 550 Jefferson Avenue — Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Tucked inside a historic brownstone apartment in Bed-Stuy, speaklow is a gallery without the gallery airs. Founded by interior stylist Michael Brown and art director Duy Pham, the space is dedicated to found art and objects collected from across the globe.

Every object here tells a story—sometimes quietly, sometimes with a bit of edge. Appointments are required, which means visits feel personal, even intimate. It is part gallery, part private collection, and wholly unlike the city’s larger art spaces.

The intimate brownstone setting makes speaklow less a gallery and more a personal collection of stories. It stands proudly among the Brooklyn art galleries, defining the borough’s creative energy.

Why visit? speaklow feels like stepping into the mind of a collector who understands that beauty often lies in the overlooked and evolving. It is a place to discover pieces you did not know you needed to see.

2. Ortega y Gasset Projects

📍 Location: 363 3rd Avenue — Gowanus, Brooklyn

Located in the creative heart of Gowanus, Ortega y Gasset Projects [OyG] is a non-profit, artist-run curatorial collective and exhibition space. Since its founding in 2013 in Bushwick, it has championed experimental and dialogue-driven work. And often spotlighted artists who have been excluded from mainstream platforms.

Do not miss their Still Point exhibition—opening September 6, 2025—curated by Caitlin Monachino and Gretchen Kraus. OyG remains a place for thoughtful risk-taking and community dialogue.

With Still Point opening September 6, 2025, Ortega y Gasset Projects reaffirms its commitment to experimental, dialogue-driven work—placing it firmly among the Brooklyn art galleries defining the borough’s creative energy.

Why visit? It is a space that values innovation and diversity, creating exhibitions that feel grounded in both critical engagement and creative freedom.

3. FiveMyles Gallery

📍 Location: 558 St. Johns Place — Crown Heights, Brooklyn

FiveMyles Gallery, in Crown Heights, operates as a non-profit visual and performance art venue founded in 1999 by Hanne Tierney. Named after her late son Myles, the gallery serves as a platform for voices from the neighborhood alongside artists from Africa and the Caribbean. Beyond visual exhibitions, FiveMyles presents performance art and puppetry, and it once hosted the Crown Heights Film Festival.

Why visit? It offers programming rooted in community and storytelling. Bringing together local and diasporic perspectives in a way that feels deeply rooted and urgent. Blending local voices with international perspectives, FiveMyles has become a fixture among the Brooklyn art galleries, defining the borough’s creative energy.

4. The Future Perfect [St. Luke’s Townhouse]

📍 Location: 8 St. Luke’s Place — West Village, Manhattan

Step through the door of this West Village townhouse, and you step into an entirely different way of experiencing design. The Future Perfect’s St. Luke’s Townhouse is not a showroom in the conventional sense. It is a residential concept gallery, arranged the way one might actually live with the pieces.

Renovated by architect David Chipperfield, the townhouse features a rotating selection of collectible design, from furniture to lighting to objects. Pieces by both American and international talents are presented in a space that feels less like a display and more like a home where someone with impeccable taste lives.

Why visit? It shifts the way you think about design—making it feel personal, attainable, and intimately connected to everyday life.

5. Pierre Augustin Rose

📍 Location: 224 Centre Street — Nolita, Manhattan

While Galerie Sardine brings art into a farmhouse setting, Pierre Augustin Rose has brought its French sensibility into Nolita. The new gallery at 224 Centre Street showcases the brand’s signature furniture pieces alongside recent additions, blending Parisian refinement with New York energy.

Each piece—whether a curvaceous sofa or a sculptural table—feels like it has been designed for a home that values both comfort and statement. The space itself, with its pared-back elegance, allows the furniture to hold the stage without distraction.

Why visit? It is a rare chance to see Pierre Augustin Rose’s work outside of Europe, and to do so in a setting that feels as curated as the pieces themselves.

6. Galerie Sardine

📍 Location: 261 Main Street — Amagansett, Long Island

Among the best art spaces NYC visitors should seek out this season is Galerie Sardine, an intimate gallery inside a historic 1700s farmhouse in Amagansett, offering a warm alternative to the traditional white-cube model. Founded by Valentina Akerman and artist Joe Bradley, the space operates as a collaborative curatorial project. Bringing together painters, sculptors, furniture makers, and object designers in a salon-style setting.

Galerie Sardine presents Song of Chloris featuring works by Ida Ekblad and the duo Erin & Sam Falls [with Pali Cornelsen]. This evocative show is on view through September 7, 2025, embracing themes of renewal and beauty emerging from dormancy. An exhibition that feels made for this late-summer moment.

Why visit? The gallery makes you feel less like a visitor and more like a guest. Its scale encourages slower looking, and the mix of mediums invites conversation between works.

7. Sky High Farm Biennial

📍 Location: 11 Main Street — Germantown, Hudson Valley

Sky High Farm has long been known for its work at the intersection of climate, agriculture, food access, and education. This summer, it adds a new dimension: its first-ever art biennial, TREES NEVER END AND HOUSES NEVER END.

The exhibition takes place inside a former apple cold-storage warehouse, transformed into a striking backdrop for works by over 50 artists, including Wade Guyton, Nan Goldin, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Roni Horn, and Carroll Dunham. The space itself feels like part of the exhibition—its industrial bones now holding art that speaks to land, memory, and collective care.

Why visit? The biennial is more than an art show. It is a conversation about our relationship to the environment, staged by an organization that actively works to change it.

Best Art Spaces NYC: From “Hidden Gems” to “Quietly Curated”

Although one might be tempted to call them hidden gems, these spaces are anything but hidden. Their rhythm is unhurried, their presence patient—never demanding, always waiting for you to notice. There is no rush here. Instead of competing for your attention, each space allows you to encounter it on your own terms.

They are quietly curated spaces. Places that reward curiosity, that invite you to step closer, and that remind you discovery is not about checking off a list, but about deepening your sense of connection to a place.

Plan Your End of Summer Art Itinerary

If you’re ready to close out summer with art and design experiences that feel personal, thoughtful, and beautifully off-center, these seven destinations are not to be missed.

Itinerary

For further inspiration, check out Art Exhibits NYC: Best Summer 2025 Shows to See Now—a BKLS guide to the most resonant exhibitions currently on view in the city.

Best Art Spaces NYC: Your Turn to Discover

New York City—and the landscapes just beyond—are full of moments of discovery found in the hush, but leave a lasting impression once found. Whether you are wandering a brownstone apartment, a Hudson Valley warehouse, or a townhouse that feels more like a dream home than a gallery. Each of these stops offers something far more valuable than novelty. A sense of intimacy with the work and the space around it.

This week, make room in your itinerary for at least one of these quietly curated spaces. See what happens when you give yourself permission to slow down, look longer, and let art meet you where you are.