A more adorable-than-usual piece of mail landed in editors' mailboxes last week: A wind-up plastic Hello Kitty figurine that serves as an invitation to artist Tom Sachs's opening at Lever House. In typical Sachs D.I.Y form, the missive is artfully distressed—the plastic-covered package looks slightly dusty and is printed so that the artist's name appears to be tacked on with Scotch Tape.

The centerpiece of Sachs's show, "Bronze Collection," will be a 21-foot-tall bronze-cast, all-white Hello Kitty, which will be installed in Lever House's courtyard, where Damien Hirst's nude Virgin Mother recently resided. While Sachs' cartoon character might be a bit more PG-rated, the lawn on the building's 53rd Street side will feature some potentially nightmare-inducing figures: oversized bronze Hello Kitty and Miffy (she's the bunny counterpart to Hello Kitty) fountains that spurt water from their eyes. The exhibit opens on May 8 and be on display through September 6.

I recently got a rare peek into what has got to be one of the city's most visually stimulating apartments: the home of Manuela and Iwan Wirth directly above Zwirner & Wirth Gallery on East 69th Street. The occasion was a dinner that Hauser & Wirth and 303 Gallery were hosting in honor of artist Mary Heilmann.

Narrow Lane #2

The five-story townhouse, renovated by Annabelle Selldorf, has been outfitted to the hilt by the art world decorating guru Ricky Clifton. The inimitable Ricky, who was there that night, told me that the whole place was inspired by Mary's work. Flanking the patio's French doors were colorful horizontally striped drapes that recalled Mary's 2002 "Serape Panel." Feeling a chill, I wanted nothing more than to throw the fabric over my head, cut a hole in the top and wear it as a Mexican-styled poncho (Mary, a child of the Sixties and fashion plate herself would surely approve). The whole place had a strong Seventies vibe, like a cross between Greg Brady's attic bedroom and the home of Austina Powers, International Woman of Mystery.

The apartment, naturally, is filled with major contemporary art pieces. Aside from the handful of Mary's paintings, I spied two slick John McCracken wall reliefs (one black, one white), a Paul McCarthy "Santa With Butt Plug" sculpture and a Jason Rhoades chandelier, which spiraled down the center of the main staircase, painted a show-stopping Heilmann chartreuse.

Read W's article on Paul McCarthy from the November 2007 issue.

At quarter past seven on Wednesday night, the line to the Whitney Biennial opening was already snaking down 75th Street and inching toward Park Avenue. "At least everyone has to wait," one skinny-jeaned VIP snorted as he trudged to the back of the line.

At the cacophonous downstairs reception, artsy types were wedged shoulder-to-shoulder by the bar, nibbling skewered chicken and dodging shards from the wine glasses that seemed to be shattering on the floor every few minutes.

Rachel Chandler, a fresh-faced Whitney intern who moonlights as Beatrice Inn's Tuesday night DJ, was behind the turntables spinning mellow tunes. "A lot of the artists are really nervous so we're trying to play stuff to make them feel better," she said.

After wandering through the packed galleries—we were especially impressed by Phoebe Washburn's Gatorade-fed ecosystem—we headed to the Biennial's satellite location at the Park Avenue Armory, where large-scale installations and performance art pieces (like a dance-a-thon and "therapy sessions") will be in place through March 23. There, the ubiquitous Yvonne Force Villareal was holding court, wearing a Gap T-shirt designed by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija over her Dolce & Gabbana gown. (Gap is a Biennial sponsor and commissioned 13 artists to create limited-edition shirts.) We also met artist Eduardo Sarabia, who had transformed one room of the Armory into a replica of an illegal bar he owns in East Berlin, complete with chessboard tables and stools resembling elephant feet. The bar, serving Sarabia's own homemade tequila, will be open for business on March 9, 11, 14, and 19.

Photos by Nick Hunt/PatrickMcMullan.com

Bella Freud, Rufus Wainwright and Larissa

Dressed in a J.C. de Castelbajac-designed black suit embroidered with silver guitars and crowns, Rufus Wainwright cut a sparkling swath through the business suits and mutedly artsy ensembles of MoMA patrons at Tuesday night's opening of "Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings."

Wainwright told me he was there to support the artist's daughter, his "very good friend" fashion designer Bella Freud, who was sporting one of her own designs, a black jumpsuit over a black-and-white shirt printed with stars. The two spent part of the evening chatting with an octogenarian woman in a delicate flapper dress in front of a wall of Lucian's portraits of Bella. Bella explained that Larissa (I didn't catch her last name) designed costumes for musicians, earning her the moniker "the Coco Chanel of rock 'n roll."

When I asked Wainwright if any artists had painted a likeness of him, he laughed. "Yes, but mostly fans from Minnesota—more like folk art," he said.

Photo by Scott Rudd courtesy of MoMA

New York's Maccarone gallery buzzed with hipsters on a sugar high at last Thursday night's opening of Paul McCarthy's chocolate factory installation. Attendees gaped through glass walls at professional chocolate-makers churning out 10-inch high chocolate renderings of McCarthy's "Santa" sculpture, which depicts St. Nick holding a Christmas tree-esque "butt plug." Completed Santas headed down a conveyor belt toward a crew of Craigslist-recruited packagers, most of whom were artists of the starving variety. Sporting brightly colored aprons as they nestled each chocolate into a bed of shredded ArtForum magazines, the workers looked the part of Santa's helpers—although the gallery drew the line at having them wear elf hats (powers-that-be briefly debated the costume choice). Just before closing, the gallery had sold 477 Santas (at $100 a pop) and plans to continue unloading them seven days a week until Christmas Eve.

Read W's article about the factory here: Paul and the Chocolate Factory

Portrait by Daniel Hennessy

Actor Chris Klein at LAXART Benefit Auction presented by Hermès

New York during fashion week, Toronto during the film festival, even Detroit during the auto show—it's those brief times of plenty when you think how exciting it is to live in the metropolis, and how exhausting. Right now, Los Angeles is in the middle of a full season of art events, and the uninitiated might need an acronym dictionary to survive. It all began with the flashy opening of a Takashi Murakami retrospective at MOCA (the Museum of Contemporary Art). Next was the annual Angel Art auction, sponsored by David and Sybil Yurman and hosted by CAA (Creative Artists Agency). A few nights later, Hermes underwrote another benefit auction that raised $300,000—three times the expected take—for LAX Art. (The non-profit arts space appropriated the acronym used by the FAA—that's the Federal Aviation Administration, of course—for the Los Angeles International Airport.) Then LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and artists Mark Bradford and Ruben Ochoa launched a terrific initiative to take arts education into the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District.)

And that's not even the half of it. The cymbal crash at the end of this alphabetical crescendo won't resound until February, when the hotly anticipated BCAM (Broad Contemporary Arts Museum) opens with an inaugural gala. Art lovers who wish to attend are advised to RSVP ASAP.

ANDREAS BRANCH/ ©Patrick McMullan