All Around Town

NEW YORK—It was a whirlwind of an art party week around New York, with openings, parties, and benefits taking over Manhattan from Chelsea to the Bowery and all the way up to Lincoln Center.

On June 24, Max and Lubov Azria hosted a cocktail party and dinner at the Met Opera Club at Lincoln Center to celebrate Francesco Clemente's new show at the Gallery Met, called "The Sopranos." If the title evokes thoughts of items on offer at Christie's Pop Culture auction on June 25, Clemente's show actually features — through September 26 — portraits of eight opera divas who are performing during the Met's 2008-09 season. The event included appearances by Jeffrey Deitch, Clemente and his wife Alba, and MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach.

That same night, the New Museum opened an exhibition showcasing the work of its first biennial Altoids Awards winners. The show is on view through October 12, and the winning artists, who received the $25,000 each, were all in attendance, as were juror and artist Rirkrit Tiravanija and famed choreographer Trisha Brown.

The next night, Friends of the High Line held their eigth annual summer benefit — the same day that final designs were revealed for the first and second phases of the High Line park. The celebration and fundraiser was a two-part affair, with cocktails at the Frank Gehry-designed IAC building in Chelsea followed by dinner at David Zwirner gallery. Mega-designer Diane von Furstenberg and landscape architect James Corner were among the guests.

And finally, on June 26, two openings to speak of: SoHo's William Bennett Gallery kicked off its exciting new show, "100 Rare Works from the Great Salvador Dalí," which runs through July 31, and Chelsea's Lehmann Maupin unveiled "Rei Sato," the first New York solo exhibition of the Japanese artist who is also a member of Takashi Murakami's "art production company," Kaikai Kiki. The show runs through August 8.

Click on the photo gallery to the left to see the highlights of the big week in New York.