In New York, two galleries have turned their gaze to the work of the controversial Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Meanwhile, from his home in Beijing, the artist has received more than $800,000 in donations from supporters.

View the top sellers from the fall Impressionist and Modern art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's — without having to spend millions — here.

Photos chronicling the grinding poverty of the Depression. The hyperreal sculptures of an Italian conceptualist-prankster. International street art and monochromatic paintings that explore various aspects of color. Plus, performance art and Inspectah Deck of the Wu-Tang Clan. It's all happening in the city this week. Here are our picks.

Since the New Museum's Carsten Höller "Experience" exhibition opened last Wednesday, city agencies have been investigating three of the show's installations: a 100-foot tube slide, a mirrored carousel and a saline sensory deprivation pool. On Tuesday, city officials gave the green light to the installations.

A show depicting photos and self-portraits of three gay male New York artists is on view now at the Matthew Marks Gallery. “Three Lives: Peter Hujar, Paul Thek, & David Wojnarowicz” is 30 photos and self-portraits taken by Peter Hujar from 1958 through 1985.

Youth and beauty in Brooklyn, architectural Modernism in the Bronx, Matisse and his models on the Upper East Side and assorted musicians and quirky conceptualists downtown. Things are cooking in New York City this week. Here's what we'll be looking at.

Giant mushrooms in the lobby. Pills that pop from the ceiling. And a sensory deprivation pool where museum-goers can float weightlessly in a body-temperature solution of salty water. Oh, and did I mention the 100-foot slide that runs from the fourth floor to the second? Carsten Höller's new exhibit "Experience" opens Wednesday at the New Museum.

After 70 years of neglect, the stuffed animals at the American Museum of Natural History’s North American mammal room are finally getting the spa treatment they deserve. The museum is in the middle of a $2.5 million dollar restoration of the exhibit’s 29 dioramas, which first opened to the public in 1942.

The Tourism Development and Investment Company, a state-run United Arab Emirates development company responsible for building the Frank Gehry-designed museum, has retracted its call for contractors to do cement work on the museum.

The otherworldly mobiles of Alexander Calder on 57th St., rare Islamic manuscripts at the Morgan, the art collection of photographer Alfred Stieglitz at the Met, Canadian cartoonists get their due on the Upper East Side and D.I.Y. filmstrips come to Williamsburg. New York has got it going on this week.

Visitors and passerby to Grand Central Station can now take a look through a window in South Korea. For "Through My Window," the photographer Ahae took more than a million pictures through the window of his house, which overlooks an organic nature preserve in South Korea.

There is so much going on this week, I don't even know where to begin -- from crafty modernism at MAD to the scratchy-pop paintings of Gary Panter in Chelsea to '90s graphic novels and '80s subway photos. New York has got it going on this week. Here's what we've got in the hopper.

In a letter to NASA, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown urged NASA to reconsider its decision to award the retired Enterprise shuttle to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum because of reports that the Intrepid is changing its original plans to house the shuttle.

Urban farming systems, a waterfront promenade, a community kitchen and biodiesel trucks that double as artist studios. Those are some of the ideas behind a new show opening at The Noguchi Museum on Thursday, called "Civic Action: A Vision for Long Island City."

Season 2 of "Work of Art," in which 14 eager, ambitious and largely attractive young artists out-conceptualize each other for a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum, premieres Wednesday night on Bravo. WNYC arts critic Carolina Miranda got a preview from one of the show's judges, critic Jerry Saltz.

Art works that explore the boundary between the real and the imagined, psychedelic paintings, and immersive pieces that bring the night sky (and other imagery) into the gallery space. Here's what's crackin' in the arts world in the coming week.

Museum visitors are meant to pick a rose from Lee's minimal, elegant (and fragrant) garden, before going out of their way to give the rose as a gift to a stranger. Check out pictures of the project here.

All week long, the Art in Odd Places festival turns Manhattan's busy thoroughfare into a museum with 70 guerrilla art installations and performance pieces. The works range from laundry hanging on the sidewalk, to quilts made out of garbage that are displayed in bodega windows, to a tree that sings Buddhist chants.

Here are four arts institutions — all of which will have openings and host events this month — to check out in The Bronx, Staten Island and Southampton: Wavehill, The Bronx River Art Center, The Alice Austen House and The Parrish Art Museum.

The "Bring to Light" festival, a free contemporary art festival that started in Paris 10 years ago under the name "Nuit Blanche," comes to Greenpoint on Saturday.