Last night was the first annual Chelsea Art Walk, for which over 25 galleries threw wide their doors to the general public on a Thursday night and stayed open until 8 p.m. — which is exactly what happens in Chelsea every Thursday anyway. The upshot of the event, it seems, was that participating galleries serving free drinks were inordinately crowded, and that the galleries that somehow missed this bandwagon were sadly deserted.

At Hasted Hunt Kraeutler there were some intimidating photographs of female body builders by Martin Schoeller, along with a series of the photographer's images of Paris Hilton, Bill Murray, and Sarah Palin that are already familiar to fans of his big-ticket magazine commissions. The artist was there in all of his dreadlocked glory, signing copies of his book.

Next, it was off to Freight + Volume, which was more or less filled by "Benefit Plate," an installation by the Texas collective Okay Mountain. It consisted of a wild-looking trailer, complete with a fan to keep the Texas state flag always waving, a condiment-dispensing wheel, and a curtained "privacy helmet" to use on the toilet.

But the highlight of the evening's gallery run was Arario Gallery, where a performance piece by Kikuko Tanaka, "A Tragic Bambi... Mother's Tears," was being staged as a part of "Irrelevant: Local Emerging Asian Artists Who Don’t Make Work About Being Asian." A clutch of female performers — one of whom sucked from a baby bottle, with her tank top pulled down to expose one breast à la Lady Liberty — sat in the middle of a set complete with a screen projection, a bunch of cheap red pillows from Ikea, and assorted props. While they talked and read aloud from texts, a procession of strangely costumed co-stars roamed around: a person in a hijab taking photographs, someone in a bunny suit handing out cups of sake, and a man in a police uniform who encouraged people to take a seat on the pillows in the performance set. (Several took up this offer — including Judith Braun from "Work of Art," a newly noticeable staple of the Thursday night gallery-openings circuit.) 

The performance occupied only a corner of the enormous Arario gallery, and "Irrelevant" also featured a range of pieces by artists including Seldon Yuan and Mai Ueda.

For pictures from ARTINFO's first encounter with the Chelsea Art Walk, click the accompanying slide show.