Tonight, Fifth Avenue turns into a pedestrian-friendly stretch of art and culture: the Museum Mile Festival. Make a date with a Van Gogh, Rembrandt, or Monet painting — or plan to dance bhangra, explore artifacts, listen to live music in the streets.
While the eight participating institutions open their doors for free, we turn your attention to local artists who’ve been opening up about their work since the start of Epicenter NYC. Instead of just goggling at a million-dollar piece at the Guggenheim, think about taking home original artwork from your neighbor — all for $100 or less.
Bonnie Astor
Read her profile | Shop her site
Bonnie Astor’s paintings and mixed media artworks have been featured by nonprofit organizations around the world for projects around women’s empowerment, education and health equity. As an artivist, she leads community workshops benefitting people with disabilities, mental health issues, and who are experiencing homelessness.
Among her many offerings is a $100 portrait of a quintessentially New York rat — part of her whimsical pet portrait series. The piece reflects her love of rich color, layered texture, and playful detail, just as we see in her pandemic-era portraits.
Cathy O’Keefe
Read her profile | Shop Cathy’s store
Cathy O’Keefe is a largely self-taught abstract expressionist who works in oils, acrylics, and mixed media, guided by intuition and a deep love of process.
“I create with a mixture of abandon and focus,” she told us. That mix shows in her emotionally charged monotypes and canvases, where color and gesture build toward her own visual language.
To wear her art on your leg sleeves, check out these leggings. The broad brushes of color are representations of her original paintings.
Karen Fitzgerald
Read her profile | Shop her prints
Karen Fitzgerald was born and raised on a dairy farm in the Midwest. This early closeness to nature continues to shape the energy of her work. Her signature circular paintings are round, gilded, and layered with thinned oil. They offer reflections on light, matter, and the unseen forces that move through our world.
“Roundness is indispensable to my visual thinking,” she writes. For those looking to bring that “distinctly other-worldly” energy home, Fitzgerald offers fine art prints starting at $40.
Hema Bharadwaj
Read her profile | Shop wearable art
Hema Bharadwaj has spent the past decade balancing her creative practice with motherhood. Her work lives between the intimate and the expansive, exploring domestic spaces while bursting into cosmic, jubilant fields of line and color. Drawing on images ranging from saris to bodily functions, Hema’s pieces invite you into an inner world both as the natural world and as concrete as an urban landscape.
Through her wearable art collection, you can carry a piece of this cosmic, layered vision with you. Check out her “Reflection” and “Splish Splash” ceramic pendants, which range from $25 to $35.
Talisa Almonte
Read her story | Shop Almonte Studio
Talisa Almonte grew up surrounded by color: first in her father’s graphic design studio in the Dominican Republic, and later through her own path in fashion and eventually mural work. What began as Instagram posts and pandemic-era pop-ups has grown into Almonte Studio, a Queens-based business offering everything from large-scale public art to playful sticker packs.Her shop is chock-full of bold, bilingual affirmation and NYC love. Check out her ode to bodega cats, 7 trains and Cafe Bustelo. Most pieces are under $50, and her clever, ever-colorful art prints start at $18.
