Greenpoint
Big group show Party at Chris's House at Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, 205 Norman Ave (at Humboldt St), 7-9pm
Manhattan art parties after the jump.

Most museums have free nights—MoMA from 4-8pm on Fridays, the New Museum from 7-9pm on Thursdays, ICP is by donation from 5-8pm on Fridays—but it took a Bloomberg grant to bring the Neue Galerie around to the practice. And it's just in time, because the museum's current show, From Klimt to Klee: Masterworks from the Serge Sabarsky Collection (through February 15), should not be missed.

Originally staged in 1965, the piece caused a sensation both in the dance world and with the general public. When the work was mounted for the first time in New York in 1967, arrest warrants were issued for the artists involved. Why all the fuss? At the time nudity on the city’s stages was illegal and rarely used, even among those who would thwart the law. Today, nudity in performance art and dance has become banal in some sense, or at the very least expected in many settings. Halprin’s use of the nude body was one of the earliest, most deliberate and prolonged examples. That said, the lack of clothing was only one of the conventions that Parades & Changes was pushing up against. Perhaps more importantly was her testing of conventions of sexuality, authorship, and even the definition of dance.

More so than the art fair week in early spring, PINTA offers an opportunity to catch smaller and lesser-known galleries from countries with vibrant but often under-represented contemporary art scenes like Brazil, Cuba and Chile. PINTA is open tomorrow and Saturday from 12-8pm and Sunday 12-7pm. Click here for details.

The French artist was best known for her works with husband Christo that often involved draping large monuments, buildings and landscapes in fabric—the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, a stretch of coast in Sydney, Pont Neuf in Paris, for instance. A family statement explained that the pair's two current works-in-progress (one in Colorado, the other in the United Arab Emirates), will continue as planned, though they'll clearly have a more solemn emotional impact than the usual giddy wonder the duo's spectacular installations evoke. (ArtsBeat)

At any rate, this realization led Mrgan to undertake a truly delightful project: He will add beards to every fictional beardless character he can think of until he runs out of ideas. The series, titled Bearded, is up to 9 so far, and includes a bearded Batman (pictured) and Robocop sporting some seriously Santa-like facial hair. I'm not sure if he's taking requests, but Ronald McDonald would look totally terrifying with a big, shaggy, Grizzly Adams-style beard. (NOTCOT)

That amounts to about $500 to make sure an artwork that is essentially priceless isn't deteriorating too quickly or substantially—compared to say, $100,000 every year to water your Jeff Koons flower puppy. It's welcome proof that not all improvised balloon contraptions sent into mountain state skies are doomed to end in mock disaster and controversy (although Eppich said that a few balloons did pop in the summer heat).

James Frey, a partner in the non-profit gallery, will be writing an essay for the exhibition catalog. He told Bloomberg: "“Getting Shaq, one of the largest people in the world, to curate a show about scale is really fun." Artists appearing in the show include Chuck Close, Tom Friedman, Andreas Gursky, Brian Jungen (presumably his shoe sculptures?), Ron Mueck (obviously), Yinka Shonibare and Kehinde Wiley, with more names still to be announced.

Double Take features a sculpture called "Pilgrim Ghost" by Johannes VanDerBeek that's exactly what it says it is, Christian de Vietri created an ominous, vaguely Blair Witch Project-y pile of cast aluminum branches called The Gathering, and Matt Irie and Dominick Talvacchio contributed a droopy but still functional lamp post (rendered at right) that seems to be getting pulled into a vortex kind of like in that Halloween episode of The Simpsons. The show also features more architectural installations by Michael DeLucia and Natasha Johns-Messenger, and continues through September 10, 2010.

The idea behind the guerrilla art attack, Bassett told NBC New York, was to call attention away from the enshrined artists whose works were fetching millions, and get bidders and auctioneers thinking about contemporary art. Bassett told the Post:

The cops liked the concept, one cop called me the new Cristo. I tried to explain this was a modern art project, but the security guard was convinced I was trying to break in and steal the Warhol print. So the cops took me to jail.

Bushwick and LES art parties after the jump.

Of course, Damien Hirst made headlines just over a year ago when he organized an auction of his own works that raked in about $200 million, but that was held at Sotheby's and featured only works by one, very well-known artist. Here, McGinness is cutting out auction houses altogether, which means no fees for buyers and more money for the artists.

The award also coincides with the Jewish Museum's major Man Ray exhibition, Alias Man Ray: The Art of Reinvention, which opens on Sunday and of which there will be a private tour during the award ceremony. I hope Sherman and long-time boyfriend David Byrne (pictured at the Performa gala) go dressed as each other.
(Photo by Amber De Vos)