It's week for changes in the galleries of New York: all around the city, art dealers and their trusty preparators are readying the second round of the season's shows. Employees at the good ship Gagosian, for instance, were seen loading Dan Colen's skateboard-ramp sculptures onto the back of a flatbed truck on 11th Avenue yesterday. And one of the season's most ambitious projects will be unveiled this week, the inaugural exhibition of the New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Haley Mellin and Alex Gartenfeld — a proud moment for the home state of this ARTINFO writer. Even public art is undergoing a period of renewal, with a high-tech Jim Campbell installation set to alight on Thursday in Madison Square Park. Forthwith, here are five shows that may be worth a visit over the next few days.

WEDNESDAY

Xaviera Simmons, at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building, 5 East 3rd Street, Wednesday, October 19, 5:30–9 p.m., and Saturday, October 23, 2–5:45 p.m., studiomuseum.org

"Simmons, as an artist, doubles down," AdamPendleton, no slouch in the art department himself, wrote in praise of the Brooklyn–based photographer last year. Fresh off a starring role in the latest edition of MoMAP.S.1's "Greater New York," Simmons — who is featured in this month's issue of Modern Painters — is hosting a series of "micro-residencies" at a gallery in the East Village, part of a collaboration between the Goethe–Institut and the Studio Museum of Harlem. The space is outfitted with a slide projector, a PA system, and a copy machine, among other tools, that will allow her to create work with a team of collaborators — including astrologers, surfers, filmmakers, and artists —on the fly.

FRIDAY

Matthew Chambers, at Untitled, 30 Orchard Street, through December 12, opening Friday, October 22, 6–8 p.m., nyuntitled.com

Rental Gallery proprietor JoelMesler showed a trove of Chambers's gigantic paintings last year, and that must have gone well because the dealer has lined up the Los Angeles–based artist for the second show at Untitled, the luxegallery he opened last month with CarolCohen on Orchard Street. Chamber peddles a scrawled, hard-wrought form of figuration with a palette that leans toward the decrepit: think AliceNeel, if she was painting with a broken arm. It makes for oddly alluring art.

"Public Service Announcement," at Invisible-Exports, 14A Orchard Street, Friday, October 22, through Sunday, October 24, noon to midnight, invisible-exports.com

Dealers Risa Needleman and Benjamin Tischer are bravely opening their gallery to three-day noon-to-midnight video festival. The affair kicks off with work by L.A. collective Show Cave, with a deliciously titled two-hour binge of videos ("Sliders") that features Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, AIDS 3-D, and a cavalcade of other artists. Collaborators Lucas Ajemian and Julien Bismuth screen their work on Saturday, while Sunday is devoted to "creative documentary work, in which the story sometimes takes precedence to the truth," a hot topic these days.

SATURDAY

Chris Caccamise, at Eleven Rivington, 11 Rivington Street, through November 24, opening Saturday, October 23, 6–8 p.m., elevenrivington.com

The once-young Lower East Side gallery district is quickly maturing: neighborhood galleries are beginning to welcome artists back for sophomore efforts. The latest to win a second show in the neighborhood is the Brooklyn–based Caccamise, whose paper constructions of phrases first appeared at Eleven Rivington in early 2008. Definite crowd pleasers (nothing wrong with that), the works range from twists on familiar sayings, "I only have eye for you," one reads, to more deadpan irony–laced expressions: "Communication Breakdown," for instance.

"Engineers of the Soul," at Postmasters Gallery, 459 West 19th Street, through December 4, opening Saturday, October 23, 6–8 p.m., postmastersart.com

The title of this exhibition comes from Stalin, who in 1932 toasted a group of Russian writers as "engineers of the soul." Today, the phrase is used in China to describe teachers. Most of the artists in the show — Yevgeniy Fiks, Lu Xiangyou, Yuri Shalamoff, and Wang Jianwei, specifically — hail from those two countries. The exception is Rainer Ganahl, an Austrian artist whom the press release dubs "a citizen of the world." His show at Alex Zachary earlier this year was a bewildering pleasure, which is a description that seems likely to apply to this show.