Pleiades Gallery
Presenting contemporary art for nearly 50 years, Pleiades Gallery is one of the oldest and most well-established galleries in New York City. Founded in Soho in 1974 by a group of like-minded artists, the gallery has hosted some of the world’s finest artists including William Behnken, who was a founding member, and Renee e. Rubin, both of whom have works in major museums including MoMA, the Met, and Brooklyn Museum. Over the years, Pleiades Gallery has also hosted notable presentations and panel discussions that have included such luminaries as John Cage, Christo, Merce Cunningham, and Lucy Lippard.
Today, the gallery is located in Chelsea’s Landmark Arts Building, in the heart of Chelsea just steps away from the High Line and situated among the most prestigious galleries in Manhattan. Pleiades has developed into a Chelsea institution with high standards that are continuously refreshed by new artists representing a diversity of styles, ages and viewpoints and that are creating work across a broad range of mediums.
Throughout the year the gallery hosts solo shows, curated group shows and juried shows. Many of the gallery’s artists are award winners whose works have been selected for exhibitions juried by curators of prominent institutions and museums throughout the world.
The gallery spotlights artistic movements and artists who are notable for creating work that crosses genres and borders, generational contexts and artistic disciplines, reflecting a broad range of sensibilities from realistic to abstract. Pleiades Gallery continually shows inspiring work of high quality contemporary artists. The gallery offers opportunities for both established and emerging artists and welcomes them to submit their work for consideration. The spirit of commitment to the artists and the art that guided the gallery from the beginning remains true today and as we look ahead to the next half-century.
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
6/10/25 – 7/5/25, Members Group Show, highlighting recent works by Pleiades artists.
8/4/25 – 8/30/25,”Voce Magna” (in a loud voice), a one-person show featuring paintings by Len DeLuca.
Reception, Saturday, August 16, 3-6 pm
Above: Len DeLuca, Crossed Up. DeLuca says, “Color is my rebellion; I use loud, unfiltered color to create a visual riot. Each piece is a declaration of emotion and chaos. I don’t whisper with pastels, I shout with chroma and contrast. My work explores the emotional resonance of color. I choose palettes that command attention; each painting is a confrontation, a celebration, and sometimes intimidating. I’m drawn to the tension between chaos and control, using saturated pigments, exaggerated contrasts, and layered textures to challenge the viewer’s comfort zone. This exhibit isn’t meant to soothe—it’s meant to wake you up. Artist Reception Saturday, 8/16/25, 3-6 PM.
9/2/25 -9/27/25, Heather Stivison, “Ebb and Flow: The Many Faces of Water”. Opening Reception Thursday, 9/4/25, 6-8 PM. This is artist Heather Stivison’s third New York City solo show. In this series of oil and acrylic paintings, Stivison does not “illustrate” water as in plein air paintings or photographs. Instead, she paints to capture the essence of water—something clear and colorless, with its shape formed entirely by the external forces of objects, land, wind, gravity. Searching for water’s most primary qualities, she uses light, color, form, shape, line, to engender a sense of water. Fluidity, reflections, rhythms are evident in her ocean surface paintings. Stivison is fascinated by the reflections and patterns created by the coastal ocean surface. She paints variations on patterns, exploring how much she can change them and still maintain the sense that the subject is surface water. In addition to surface water, the exhibition includes larger paintings, some a full five-feet-wide, that explore the sense of weightlessness and mystery that she finds in the imagining unknown ocean depths.
A special feature of this exhibition is an on-demand sound installation of original jazz music composed and performed by scientist Noah Germolus, during his time researching ocean chemistry at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Germolus and Stivison took part in a multi-year collaboration where she interpreted his data in paint. He in turn, interpreted four of her paintings in music.
Suyapa Quinn’s solo show, “A Journey in Color: Recent Work”, will be on display from 9/30/25-10/25/25 at Pleiades Gallery. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, 10/4,25 from 3-6 PM. On 10/18/25 from 3-6 PM, there will be a Poetry Reading featuring poems in translation from Ukranian. Olena Jennings, poet and author, is the presenter.
