To those with the time, energy and desire to learn, museums are an invaluable resource for the savvy collector.  Whether one’s focus is cutting edge contemporary art, modern masters, or anything in between, New York’s museums are a treasure trove of information and aesthetic seduction. In recent months one had the chance to see exhibitions of extremely high caliber – Yayoi Kusama, Richard Artschwager, Jay de Feo retrospectives and the Blues for Smoke group exhibition at the Whitney, the young British video artist Ed Atkins at PS1, a group show of photography at the Museum of Modern Art that included Anne Collier and Michele Abeles, and 1993 at the New Museum which included works by Cady Noland, Zoe Leonard and Mike Kelley.

Museum exhibitions are often a moment to take stock of different art movements or individual artists, and allow one the chance to assess their overall importance. For instance the Guggenheim recently opened a large survey exhibition of the Japanese Gutai group, who were founded in 1954 by the painter Jiro Yoshihara. This terrific survey confirmed that many Gutai artists, including Shiraga Kazuo, Atsuko Tanaka and Tsuruko Yamakazi, are of the highest quality and equal in interest and importance as many of their American Abstract-Expressionist peers. An interesting correlative was the Museum of Modern Art’s recent Tokyo 1955-1970 exhibition, which took a broader survey of Japanese art from the same time period and included a number of similarly high quality works by Gutai artists. Danh Vo’s exhibition at the Guggenheim provided an introduction for many people to the Chinese-American painter Martin Wong. In this case, rather than offering a definitive overview, the museum show is perhaps the beginning of a revival of interest in this intriguing artist.

At the other end of the spectrum, young and emerging galleries provide essential opportunities for a new generation of artists. To this end, it is sometimes necessary to depart from one’s usual routine of gallery visits. For instance, Soloway Gallery in Brooklyn had a group exhibition curated by the Austrian born artist Josef Strau that included works by Henrik Olesen, Jose Rojas and Nora Schultz. Similarly off the beaten path is Real Fine Arts, another Brooklyn based gallery, who had an exhibition of collaborative work by Manuel Gnam and Taslima Ahmed. Many out of the way spaces in Chinatown and the Lower East Side also provide opportunities for discovering new and exciting art. P! is a gallery just of the Bowery founded by graphic designer and curator Prem Krishnapurthy that focuses largely on group exhibitions. 47 Canal and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, both located on the second floor of walk up buildings on the edges of Chinatown, have numerous promising young artists that in all likelihood will be the art stars of tomorrow.