Sculpture and the City

NEW YORK—Sculpture was all the rage on the art party scene the past two weeks, as two Chelsea galleries hosted big opening events. Body-obsessed artist Richard Dupont unveiled his "Terminal Stage," a site-specific installation on view through May 3 in Midtown's Lever House, which earlier this year played host to Damien Hirst's most recent formaldehyde-and-sausage fest. Big-name gallerists like Tony Shafrazi and Larry Gagosian showed up to marvel at Dupont's larger-than-life models of his own body interspersed throughout the lobby of one of New York's iconic skyscrapers.

Over in Chelsea, Sikkema Jenkins & Co. kicked off Jean-Michel Othoniel's first solo exhibition at the gallery, "Secret Americana" (through March 29). The French Othoniel used the American West as an inspiration for the sculptures and installation pieces in the show, transforming his signature large glass necklaces into red, blue, and clear glass lassos. Hennessy co-sponsored the opening party — which brought out architect Peter Marino, designer India Mahdavi, and Mark Cornell, president and CEO of Moet Hennessy, to name a few — as a celebration of Le Coffre à Secrets (The Chest of Secrets), a limited edition piece created by the artist for Hennessy that was making its New York debut.

Click on the photo gallery at left to check out the highlights. We've also included a few stragglers from another two big openings of the past month: Cai Guo-Qiang's "I Want to Believe" at the Guggenheim, and "Frida Kahlo" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.