Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami
Dec. 1, 2010-Feb. 13, 2011
The first U.S. museum exhibition of the artist’s sculpture, reflecting "his fixation on movie stars, fictional characters and his family," plus early miniature dioramas and tableaux
Curator: Bonnie Clearwater
Funding: MOCA Knight Exhibition Endowment

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Dec. 6, 2010-Feb. 27, 2011
Dreamlike black-and-white scenes, drawn from memories of archetypal spaces, that produce a magical world of wonder and poetry (the museum says -- seems to be a film)
Funding: Lawrence Cohen/Ringler Associates

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Dec. 7, 2010-summer 2011
100 boxes, caskets and small chests from the European sculpture and decorative arts department -- the Met’s only new show this month

Gallery at REDCAT
Dec. 7, 2010-Feb. 6, 2011
Both lyrical or practical reuse of abandoned Israeli buildings in Palestinian territories, via three projects by Decolonizing Architecture, a Bethlehem-based project initiated in 2007 by Alessandro Petti, Sandi Hilal and eyal Weizman
Funding: Nimoy Foundation, Graham Foundation, haudenschildGarage

Nasher Sculpture Center
Dec. 11, 2010-Mar. 6, 2011
Over 30 sculptures spanning the artist’s career, plus works by seven contemporary contemporary artists: Martin Boyce, Nathan Carter, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Aaron Curry, Kristi Lippire, Jason Meadows, and Jason Middlebrook
Curator: Lynne Warren, Chicago MCA
Catalogue: 176 pp, $39.95
Tour: Chicago MCA, June 26-Oct. 17, 2010, Orange County Museum, Apr. 9-Sept. 6, 2011; Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, Feb. 16-June 17, 2012
Funding:  Northern Trust Company, Terra Foundation for American Art, others

Art Institute of Chicago
Dec. 11, 2010-July 20, 2011
More than 30 projects, from conceptual design to furniture and architecture, by a range of architects and firms, including Florencia Pita/mod, Jurgen Mayer H., R&Sie(n), Experimental Jetset, Emergent/Tom Wiscombe, Arik Levy, Studio Makkink & Bey, Shigeru Ban, Joris Laarman, Nacho Carbonell, and Matali Crasset
Curators: Joseph Rosa, Zoe Ryan
Catalogue: 160 pp., $30
Also on view: "Real and Imaginary: Three Latin American Artists," Dec. 11, 2010-May 29, 2011 (Raúl Colón, David Diaz and Yuyi Morales)

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Dec. 12, 2010-Feb. 27, 2011
The opulent art and refined culture of the Lucknow Court
Curators: Stephen Markel, Tushara Bindu Gude
Catalogue: Prestel, 272 pp., $75

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Dec. 12, 2010-Feb. 27, 2011
At the Geffen Contemporary, the recreation of large-scale installations by Carlos Cruz-Diez, Lucio Fontana, Julio Le Parc, Hélio Oiticica and Neville D'Almeida, and Jesús Rafael Soto, including a three-foot-deep heated "swimming pool" shot through with colored lights, in which museum visitors can lounge for an "immersive" experience
Curator: Alma Ruiz
Catalogue: 148 pp.
Tour: The show has already appeared at the Hirshhorn Museum

Whitney Museum of American Art
Dec. 15, 2010-tba
An evocation of the ancient Native American city of Cahokia (modern day East St. Louis) via 16mm film and rammed-earth monoliths, by the young Los Angeles-based artist (b. 1981)

Museum of Modern Art
Dec. 19, 2010-Mar. 21, 2011
The artist
The artist’s most radical black-and-white silent films, transferred from 16mm film to DVD, projected onto screens and video monitors on the museum’s sixth floor
Tour: The exhibition originated in a different form at MoMA QNS back in 2003, and has toured the world since
Curator: Klaus Biesenbach
Funding: Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley
Also on view: "Performance 9: Allora & Calzadilla," Dec. 8, 2010-Jan. 10, 2011, presenting the artists’ Stop, Repair, Prepare: Variations on Ode to Joy for a Prepared Piano (2008)