Galleries don’t need many visitors to survive. They just need a few of the right visitors — people willing to spend money. As Barbara Gladstone once told New York magazine, “You don’t sell four times as many pieces if four times as many people come in.” That is the ethos of the hundreds of galleries that inhabit the upper floors of Chelsea buildings, who trade walk-in traffic for cheaper rent and the hope of a potentially more serious clientele.

Gallery-goers — even those not planning to buy — benefit from the proliferation of aboveground galleries, as well. Even on crowded Saturdays in the neighborhood, the upper floors are often tranquil, the art is, on average, more adventurous, and the galleries are smaller (and packed more closely together) than down on the street, meaning that if the art is doesn’t interest you, another show is just down the hall or a short elevator ride away.  

Click the photo gallery at left to see five shows currently on view in upper Chelsea.