I’m surprised that I haven’t really seen mentions on art blogs of the new art fair, ART(212), which opens this week. I like the fact that the opening night preview is a benefit for Aid For AIDS and The New York Foundation For The Arts, rather than for something like a big museum’s acquisition fund.

The private preview is Wednesday, September 27, 6-9PM. Tickets are $75 each, or $130 for two. After that it’s $15/day, or free on Friday from 6-9PM.

Some bloggy friends such as Daniel Cooney Fine Art, Moti Hasson Gallery, Hudson Franklin, Magnan Projects, Mixed Greens, Morgan Lehman, and Priska C. Juschka Fine Art are participating. I know that Robert Koch (San Francisco) will have some Brian Ulrich photos available, for his fans here.

There are also special projects, including an exhibition curated by the Asia Society and El Museo Del Barrio.

A very worthy project, with excellent silent art auctions each year, is having its annual benefit tomorrow night at Exit Art:

Groundswell Community Mural Project

10th Anniversary Gala Benefit & Art Auction

Wednesday September 20th, 2006
7-10 pm at
EXIT ART— 475 Tenth Avenue
at 36th Street in Manhattan

Tickets start at $35. Click on the benefit link above to see the impressive list of artists who have contributed work.

I saw this while walking on Bedford Street in Williamsburg yesterday. It is her project for Conflux, described on the website as “the the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets.”

You can find out more about the artist and the project on her blog.

James and I are thrilled with the description of Susan C. Dessel’s work on Artinfo.com:

Poli See

Speaking of predictions, maybe it was the forecast that gallerists Edward Winkleman and Daniel Papkin recently gave to ArtInfo, or maybe it was the blaring media volume on the pending 9/11 anniversary, but when we joined the crowds in Chelsea, we were expecting to see a number of artists engaging with our charged political climate. And that did, indeed, prove to be the case at a few galleries. And, weÂ’re happy to report, most of the work that could reasonably be read as carrying political overtones was well-crafted; there was little pat sloganeering going on (although there was some).

But while Chelsea had its fair share of political art, it was indefatigable gallery visitors who hit openings in Brooklyn on Friday who got to see an especially strong work that explicitly evoked the political climate. Susan C. DesselÂ’s installation, Our Backyard, A Cautionary Tale, in the sculpture garden at Dam, Stuhltrager, featured a series of white plastic body bags lined up on a patch of grass. To get from the back door of the gallery to the outdoor bar, visitors had to either navigate a narrow path or step over the body bags to reach the far side of the outdoor space. As the opening got crowded, it provided perhaps the most apt metaphor for why we may see more “political” art this fall—under contemporary circumstances, itÂ’s simply unavoidable.

More information on the exhibition is here.

Related: Opening night photo from James.