They are shops
A commercial gallery sells art, which means it is a shop with a very unusual stock policy. Like any shop it costs nothing to enter, you are not obliged to buy anything and the person at the desk is working rather than judging you. Unlike most shops, nobody will greet you, which visitors frequently misread as hostility. It is the opposite: they are leaving you alone on purpose.
The price list
Every gallery has one and will hand it to you if you ask. It is a sheet of paper with the works, the media, the dimensions and the prices, and asking for it is completely normal behaviour. It is also the fastest way to understand what you are looking at, because the material description tells you what was actually done.
Where they cluster
Galleries group deliberately so that visitors can walk between them. Chelsea in New York holds around two hundred within nine blocks. Kødbyen in Copenhagen packs them into old meatpacking halls. Berlin spreads them across Mitte, Potsdamer Straße and Charlottenburg, and coordinates a whole weekend around them each spring.
Thursday is the night
Openings happen on Thursday evenings in almost every city on earth, for no reason anybody can fully explain. There is wine, the artist is usually present, and nobody will ask who you are. It is the most social free evening available in any city in this guide.
What to say
Nothing is required. If you want to talk, "how long has this been up" and "is the artist local" are both real questions with real answers, and neither one exposes you as an outsider. If you want to know more, ask for the press release: it is free, it explains the show and it is written to be handed to people exactly like you.
