I visited Di Donna last Saturday to see their current exhibit and was blown away. So what is it? Di Donna Galleries specializes in museum-quality exhibitions and sales of European and American art from 1900 to 1970, with an emphasis on surrealism. They were founded in 2010 and moved into their current space on Madison Avenue at East 64th in 2016.
(Love to visit art museums when you visit NYC? Don't sleep on the city's art galleries. Because Di Donna's exhibits are as museum-quality as they promise on their website.)
Here's how it works. It's free to visit. (FYI they are closed on Sundays.) You'll walk up to a white door on Madison Avenue (it's marked to let you know you're in the right place) and press a call button. Then you'll be let into a hallway and you'll walk down it to the elevator which you take to Di Donna's floor. Then you walk into a small but intimate and modern gallery space (about three separate gallery rooms). It's free to visit, and there were a few staff members at a desk to answer questions and selling an exhibition catalogue.
The exhibit I saw on Saturday (which closes on June 13, 2026) was Dalí: The Great Years. The exhibit was great. Many of the pieces were on loan from the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since I've never been there, I probably hadn't seen any of them before unless they'd been loaned out for other exhibits I saw in the past. The exhibit was well-organized (it is chronological so it was easy to know where to start, where to go next, and where to finish) and had helpful information to read while exploring the galleries.
I had a great time at Di Donna, and I've already signed up for their email list so I'll know when their next great exhibit opens! read more