Among the blue-ribbon award recipients expected to take part are Kara Walker (best monographic show), Rudolf Stingel and Francesco Bonami (best monographic show, second place), Joan Jonas (best video show), John Elderfield (best historical show, for "Manet and the Execution of Maximilian"), Francis Naumann (best show in a commercial gallery, for "Daughters of New York Dada"), Elizabeth Sussman, Jane Crawford and Adam Weinberg (best New York monographic museum show, for "Gordon Matta-Clark"), Kynaston McShine (best New York monographic museum show, second place, for "Richard Serra"), Connie Butler (best thematic museum show, second place, for "WACK!"), Katy Siegel and David Reed (best show by a smaller organization, second place, for "High Times, Hard Times"), and Brian Wallis, Christopher Phillips, Edward Earle, Carol Squiers and Joanna Lehan (best New York thematic show, second place, for "Ecotopia").

New Museum of Modern Art association director Kathy Halbreich is serving as mistress of ceremonies. The event begins at 6 pm sharp, and is open to the public. For detailed info on the awards, see www.aicausa.org

PLENSA HEAD TO GREET CHICAGO ART LOVERS
A giant-sized steel-mesh sculpture of a head by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa is going to greet visitors to the "Artropolis" mega-fair blowout in Chicago -- more than 180 galleries come to town for Art Chicago, NEXT, the International Antiques Fair, the Intuit Show for Outsider Art and the Artist Project, all taking place at the Merchandise Mart, Apr. 25-28, 2008. Titled Sho and measuring about ten feet tall, the sculpture is most likely to be sited at the entrance to the Merchandise Mart building, courtesy of Richard Gray Gallery of Chicago. The work was previously on view in a survey show of Plensa’s work at IVAM in Valencia.

ASIAN ART WEEK IN NYC
"Asia Week" is upon us in New York, the twice-yearly round of auctions and art fairs specializing in Asian art (see below). But spicing up the event this spring is Asian Contemporary Art Week, Mar. 15-24, 2008, featuring Asian art at an impressive 46 different New York museums and galleries.

A sampling of the gallery shows would include M. Viswanadhan at Marlborough Gallery, Grace Tong at Goedhuis Contemporary, "Creative Circuit: Indian Contemporaries" at Tamarind Art, Tomie Arai at the Lower East Side Printshop, Hyongkoo Lee at Arario Gallery, Ranbir Kaleka at Bose Pacia, Shi Jinsong at Chambers Fine Art, Lin Tianmiao and Wu Moonching at Mary Ryan Gallery, Hye Rim Lee at Max Lang, Byron Kim and Qiu Jiongjiong at Max Protetch Gallery, Drishti at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Ashok Sukumaran at Thomas Erben Gallery, Kanishka Raja at Envoy, "Power of the Brush, Leading Painters from Asia" at Ethan Cohen Fine Arts, Tadaaki Kuwayama at Gary Snyder Project Space, O Zhang at Ch’i Contemprary Fine Art, and Zhang Hui at Eli Klein Fine Art. For more details, see www.acaw.net

At the same time, Sotheby’s New York holds three days of sales of Asian art, Mar. 17-19, 2008, kicking off with a big sale of "Contemporary Art Asia" that includes a work from 2001 by Zhang Xiaogang estimated to sell for $1,800,000-$2,500,000.

Christie’s New York holds its Asia Week sales Mar. 18-21, 2008, beginning with Japanese and Korean art and ending with Indian and Southeast Asian art.

Brian and Anna Haughton’s International Asian Art Fair, Mar. 15-19, 2008, features more than 30 exhibitors from the U.S., England, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. This year the fair forgoes its former home at the Park Avenue Armory and sets up down the block at 583 Park Avenue at 63rd Street. The gala preview on Mar. 14 benefits the Asia Society. For details, see www.haughton.com

ARTISTS FOR "PROSPECT.1 NEW ORLEANS"
Curator Dan Cameron has announced the artists selected for "Prospect.1 New Orleans," Nov. 1, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009, the citywide art show designed to help revitalize the hurricane-harrowed Gulf city. Participating artists are Allora & Calzadilla, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Janine Antoni, Alexandre Arrechea, Luis Cruz Azaceta, John Barnes, Jr., Sanford Biggers, Willie Birch, Monica Bonvicini, Mark Bradford, Candice Breitz, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cao Fei, Francis Cape, Chen Chieh-Jen, Adam Cvijanovic, Jose Damasceno, Anne Deleporte, Leandro Erlich, Skylar Fein, Roy Ferdinand, Jr., Tony Fitzpatrick, Gajin Fujita, Rico Gatson, Katharina Grosse, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Victor Harris & Fi Yi Yi, Arturo Herrera, Jacqueline Humphries, Isaac Julien, William Kentridge, Lee Bul, Kalup Linzy, Srdjan Loncar, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Deborah Luster, Jorge Macchi, Shawne Major, Nalini Malani, Mccallum & Tarry, Dave Mckenzie, Josephine Meckseper, Julie Mehretu, Aernout Mik, Beatriz Milhazes, Tatsuo Miyajima, Yasumasa Morimura, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Wangechi Mutu, Shirin Neshat, Marcel Odenbach, Kaz Oshiro, Miguel Palma, Perejaume, Pierre Et Gilles, John Pilson, Sebastián Preece, Navin Rawanchaikul, Rosângela Rennó, Pedro Reyes, Robin Rhode, Stephen G. Rhodes, Nadine Robinson, Clare E. Rojas, Kay Rosen, Malick Sidibé, Amy Sillman, Nedko Solakov, Monika Sosnowska, Jackie Sumell and Herman Wallace, Superflex, Fiona Tan, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Fred Tomaselli, Jannis Varelas, Xavier Veilhan, Paul Villinski, Nari Ward, Xu Bing and Haegue Yang.

NEW NETWORK FOR WOMEN IN THE ARTS
A new networking organization has been founded for women in the arts, designed to advance professional development and promote leadership. POWArts, the Professional Organization of Women in the Arts, is launched by Sara Kay, a fine arts representative at Jan Krugier Gallery in New York. Other officers for the group include art consultant Andrea L. Wood; Mary Zuber, collections manager at the Metropolitan Museum’s drawings and prints department; and Meghan Carleton, a partner in Art Finance Partners. Elizabeth Wickersham, gallery manager at Otto Naumann Fine Art, is membership committee director (annual dues are set at $110). For more info, see www.powarts.org  

"KILL THE VIEWER" AT CHELSEA GALLERY
In his new exhibition at Alexander Gray Associates in New York’s Chelsea art district, artist Luis Camnitzer presents an intriguing solution to an ever-present artistic problem: what to do if the viewer doesn’t like your work. Sifter (The Mechanism for Killing a Spectator) consists of a plaque on the wall and a brown welcome mat, connected by electrical tubing. The text on the plaque suggests a method of measuring the viewer’s response to a work of art and killing him or her if the response is unsatisfactory. According to the gallery, the installation compares artists with dictators. The show goes on view Mar. 19-Apr. 26, 2008.

COOL SCHOOL OPENS IN NEW YORK
Actor (and exhibiting photographer) Jeff Bridges narrates The Cool School, the new documentary on the Ferus Gallery, the pioneering Beat-era art venue in Los Angeles that was opened in 1957 by Walter Hopps and Irving Blum and exhibited works by Ed Keinholz, Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Larry Bell and Ed Moses, among others. The film, which takes its title from a 1964 Artforum article by editor Phil Leider, is made by Morgan Neville, who has written and directed movies about Muddy Waters, John Steinbeck, Brian Wilson, Nat King Cole and a dozen other figures. Art critic Kristine McKenna gets co-writing credit. It opens at the Cinema Village in New York on Mar. 28, 2008.

CINDY SHERMAN FILM AT TRIBECA FILM FEST
The long-awaited documentary film about the celebrated artist Cindy Sherman by her one-time paramour, Paul H-O, has its New York debut at the seventh annual Tribeca Film Festival, Apr. 23-May 4, 2008. The 87-minute-long Guest of Cindy Sherman, which is directed and produced by H-O and Tom Donahue, is one of ten documentaries in the fest’s "Encounters" section. Billed as a "personal and often humorous documentary," the film promises "unprecedented access to Sherman and a unique view of the New York art world." For more info, see www.filmlikenyc.com

NEW DIRECTOR FOR WOMEN’S ART MUSEUM
Susan Fisher Sterling has been appointed as the new director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., succeeding Judy L. Larson. Sterling has been on the NMWA staff since 1988, serving as chief curator since 1994 and deputy director since 2001.

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