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Expect big names and equivalent price tags at this blue-ribbon gallery with two locations, two floors uptown and a Chelsea address with the lofty spaces necessary for exhibiting large-scale art. Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Richard Serra, and Cy Twombly are among the contemporary artists represented.

This top-of-the-art-world gallery, representing artists including Larry River, Red Grooms, R.B. Kitaj, and Marisol, has opted for two locations. The Midtown gallery has shown work by sculptors such as Anthony Caro and Jacques Lipschitz. New sculpture and paintings are found at the Chelsea location.

One of the art world’s big names has deserted SoHo for a sleek Chelsea gallery where work on show still has a downtown edge and talented newcomers share space with established artists. Occasional intriguing group shows, assembled by independent curators, include sculpture, photography, and painting.

Expect the likes of Picasso, Rothko, Chuck Close, or Julian Schnable at this ultra-prestigious gallery showing modern masters of the 20th century and living artists. At 57th Street the galleries are for photographs and prints, as well as fine art. The gallery in Chelsea shows large-scale pieces.

This is an excellent place to see some of the most creative work being produced today. The gallery was set up in 1975 to showcase European artists who had little recognition in the US. Exhibitions have included works by many notable international artists, including Bruce Nauman and his wife Susan Rothenberg.

Formed in 1976 to promote the art of drawing, the non-profit center has presented the drawings of more than 1,800 emerging artists, as well as the work of the Old Masters. The Center also hosts monthly readings to present new writing.

A trenchant supporter of large-scale works of art since the 1970s, the non-profit Dia Center for the Arts opened this spacious facility in 1987 in a four-story renovated warehouse. The galleries are currently closed for renovation until 2006, but exhibitions continue to be held at the branch gallery in Beacon, NY.

This was the first commercial gallery to open in Chelsea, in a converted garage, in 1994. Marks specializes in showing big-name artists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Lucian Freud, and Brice Marden. There is now a second two-story location in a former knife factory on 24th Street. In this building, new works by painters, photographers, and sculptors are currently being exhibited.

This vast, creatively-designed space filtering natural light through a cathedral ceiling is a superb setting for conceptual and minimalist art by Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, Joel Shapiro, and others. Paula Cooper, a SoHo pioneer, deserted in 1996 to move to the Chelsea district.

Kasmin is the son of a bohemian London dealer and continues the family tradition of taking chances on new artists. He features these artists in group shows that often turn the artists into rising stars. More established names, including those of sculptors and photographers, regularly appear in solo exhibitions. Kasmin joined the popular exodus to Chelsea in 1999.