I enjoyed Eileen Neff's exhibit at the ICA in Philadelphia last weekend, especially her chair full of trees.
In Chelsea I loved Mike Peter Smith at Jeff Bailey Gallery. Mike works at the Museum of Natural History and creates his art out of that wonderful scientific exhibitions shop. I totally encourage you to look through all of the images on the gallery website, or better yet, visit in person! The show's up until Saturday.
Also highly entertaining was the Chocolate Jesus (and Chocolate Saints) exhibit at The Proposition. You've probably heard about it on the news, either in April with all the commotion about its sacriligeous timing, or more recently in its less controversial setting. I thought it was actually a fun and almost tender rendition, though Jesus' face was certainly different than the most common version.
At Pace Wildenstein, Carsten Nicolai built a pair of concave mirrors with speakers attached to the back which emitted low-grade noises that varied as you walked around the funhouse mirrors. He also built a black room and created a fog and light show- the projected lights pulsed slowly, sometimes fading to pitch black, and were filtered through fog that filled the room in varying degrees.
Death abounds at Cheim and Read, which was seasonally appropriate. But it's a strong theme in the fall shows this year- skulls and skeletons. I loved Jenny Holzer's table of human bones, with metal bands surrounding some of the vertebrae that were inscribed with text. The text curved all the way around the band, so you could only read parts of it.
And the Kara Walker exhibit at the Whitney was totally stunning. I'd studied her in art history classes but realized upon seeing this retrospective that I'd never seen her work in the flesh before. It is more powerful than I'd imagined it could be. I caught part the tour and having the docent verbalize the ideas and images made it a richer experience than if I had just been looking with my eyes. She's got some important things to say, and she's a really talented artist.