Peekskill -- known as the birthplace of New York State governor George Pataki -- opens the third-annual art-blitz at venues throughout the city, everywhere from local businesses and stores to parks and ferries. The 18 curators and project director Alison Levy have lined up a banquet of some 111 contemporary artists from all over the world to participate.

What can those who take the train up to Peekskill hope to see? Among other things, the opening weekend’s festivities are graced by a BBQ by installation artist Elanit Kayne, an art-kite event by John Daquno titled "Kites Are for Love and Peace," a rock-skipping contest by Brooklyn artist Kambui Olujimi, mandala-like crop circles by Michael Natiello and a UFO at the downtown gazebo by Thomas Sandbichler, as well as video screening and performance "based on the original Dutch trade with Native Americans for the land in Peekskill."

The weekend also coincides with the opening of the Daniel Fuller-curated "Only the Paranoid Survive" at Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art on Main Street, Sept. 17, 2006-Jan. 21, 2007, bringing together art inspired by "war on terror" paranoia by Darren Almond, Marc Bijl, Nigel Cooke, Sean Dack, Jacob Dyrenforth, Kendell Geers, Matt Greene, Mauricio Guillen, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Keegan McHargue, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Todd Norsten, Trevor Paglen, Adam Putnam, Sterling Ruby, Lisa Ruyter, Tom Sachs, Anj Smith, Scott Treleaven and Amy Wilson.

More info about "Peekskill Project 2006" is available at the HVCCA website.

BUSY WEEK FOR BANKSY
Things moved from the ridiculous to the sublime this weekend for U.K. graffiti artist and cultural guerilla Banksy. First, he placed some 500 copies of a doctored version of Paris Hilton’s new CD on record shelves in the U.K., with the CD cover depicting a topless (though credible) version of the socialite-cum-reality-TV star, and featuring Banksy’s own remixes of her songs, given titles such as "Why Am I Famous?" and "What Am I For?" The stunt may have been largely harmless to the unstoppable Hilton -- but copies of the doctored CDs are now being auctioned on Ebay for £300 or more.

The jet-setting Banksy then seems to have crossed the pond to Los Angeles, where he marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York by placing a replica of a hooded and chained Guantanamo Bay detainee in an orange jumpsuit in the "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" ride at Disneyland. The dummy was on view for more than an hour before the ride was closed to remove it. Banksy is also scheduled to host a "three-day vandalized warehouse extravaganza" in L.A., Sept. 15-17, 2006 -- though details aren’t yet available. For the exact location, check www.banksy.co.uk on Friday.

FREE MUSEUMS IN LOS ANGELES
They’re calling it a "Museums Free-for-all." On Oct. 1, 2006, museums across Los Angeles and Orange County are abolishing admission charges for the day -- though regular parking fees apply. Some 20 museums are participating under the aegis of the Museum Marketing Roundtable, including the Getty Center, the Hammer Museum, the Laguna Art Museum, the Long Beach Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Norton Simon Museum. For more info, see www.museumsla.org

RHEIMS SURVEY AT COOK FINE ART
Fans of the Paris-based photographer Bettina Rheims (b. 1952) are heading to Cook Fine Art at 1063 Madison Avenue for "Bettina Rheims: Twenty-Five Years," Sept. 18-Oct. 31, 2006, a survey of erotic and fashion works by the celebrated post-feminist photographer. The exhibition includes images from her first book, Female Trouble, published in 1989 and featuring high-contrast black-and-white images of models, movie stars and ordinary women posing naked or in stages of undress; works from the famous series Chambre close (1992-93), in which women are photographed in anonymous hotel rooms as if during an assignation; celebrity portraits from Pourquoi m’a tu abandonné (1996); and one photo from Shanghai (2003), the series of contemporary images of the women of China. Rheims has had retrospective exhibitions in Europe and Japan but her recent exposure in New York has been limited to a show of "Chambre close" at Cheim & Read in 2002.

VOSTELL VIDEO AT JANOS GAT
Arguably the first artist to use television in an artwork was Wolf Vostell (1932-98), who combined a slashed canvas with a flickering TV set in 1958, titling the assemblage Transmigration. Now, Janos Gat Gallery at 1100 Madison Avenue is mounting an exhibition of Vostell’s complete works in video. "Wolf Vostell: Video Works," Sept. 19-Nov. 25, 2006, includes "TV De-coll/age" (1959-67), a series of 50 prints of television broadcasts shot through a distorting screen and published by Bernard Hoke in 1967, as well as more than 20 tapes, ranging from Sun in Your Head (1967) -- the first art video to use television images -- to antiwar pieces like Vietnam (1968-71) and Sarajevo (1993). The show, co-organized by Gat and Rafael Vostell, is put together in conjunction with Vostell Happening and Fluxus Archives in Malpartida, Spain.

RICHARD HAMILTON AT DICKINSON
A selection of major works by English Pop artist Richard Hamilton (b. 1922) is being presented at the New York branch of Dickinson Roundell at 19 East 66th Street in Manhattan, Nov. 11-Dec. 15, 2006. The retrospective, the most extensive in the city since the artist’s 1973 show at the Guggenheim Museum, features works from 1954 to 1983, including Fashion-plate (Cosmetic Study IV) (1969) and The Solomon R. Guggenheim (Metalflake) (1965-66). The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by London Times senior art critic Richard Cork and a foreword by Picasso biographer John Richardson.

ARNOLD NEWMAN TRIBUTE AT PMA
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is paying tribute to famed portrait photographer Arnold Newman (1918-2006), who died in June at age 88, with an exhibition of more than 60 works from the museum collection. "Modern People: A Tribute to Arnold Newman" Sept. 23, 2006-Mar. 4, 2007, is organized by curator Peter Barberie and includes works by Newman’s peers as well as by Newman himself. The Philadelphia Museum organized Newman’s first solo show, "Artists Look like This," in 1944.

MOMENTA ART DEBUTS NEW SPACE
The estimable Brooklyn nonprofit art space Momenta Art, which was opened in New York in 1992 by artists Eric Heist and Laura Parnes (following a six-year sojourn in Philadelphia), debuts its new space on at 359 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg with "The Unhumane Society," Sept. 15-Oct. 15, 2006. Marking the organization’s 20th anniversary, the show features work that examines "the animal kingdom, but in this documentary moment, something goes awray." Artists in the show include Rita Ackermann, Breyer/P-Orridge, David Burns, Stefaan Dheedene, Mark Dion, Jason Fox, Daniel Herskowitz, Rachel Lowther, Tom Moore, Grace Roselli and Liselot van der Heijden. For further details, see www.momentaart.org

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