NEW YORK—Performa hosted the Metal Ball on November 15, a benefit for the organization's third performance art biennial, which will run November 1–22, 2009, in New York. The ball was inspired by the Bauhaus's 1929 Metallic Festival, when students and professors decorated the legendary German school in metallic colors and materials. For its 21st-century re-creation, Performa invited guests to dress in metallic-themed clothing and accessories — or "be dressed by a team of wardrobe specialists upon their arrival." Those who answered the call include two of the hippest New York art-party hopping couples — David Byrne and Cindy Sherman, and Rufus Wainwright and his boyfriend, Jörn Weisbrodt — as well as Performa director RoseLee Goldberg, designer Zac Posen, and artists Isaac Julien and Jesper Just, to name just a few.

And this week, Pipilotti Rist's new installation, Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters), debuted in the atrium at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The November 19 kick-off was packed with people who took off their shoes to sit on Rist's specially installed carpet and watch the large-scale video work projected onto three of the room's walls. Actress Kim Cattrall and dealer Roland Augustine — plus Marie-Josée Kravis, president of MoMA, and real estate mogul Jerry Speyer — all stopped by to take in the video and some cocktails. The installation remains on view through February 2.

Last, we catch up with the Guggenheim Museum's 2008 International Gala. The event is an annual fundraiser for the institution, and this year's edition, held on November 10, honored the artists participating in the museum's "theanyspacewhatever" exhibition, which runs through January 7. The Guggenheim brought in $2.4 million over the course of the night and hosted some 500 guests, including artists Cai Guo-Qiang and Ryan McGinley and collectors Stephanie Seymour Brant, Pamela Sanders, and Agnes Lee.

Check out party pictures by clicking on the photo gallery to the left.