Around the galleries: Susannah Woolmer previews major fall shows in New York, ranging from Wildenstein's splendid benefit show for the New Orleans Museum of Art to new work by Dale Chihuly and Alexander Creswell

Apollo, Oct, 2006 by Susannah Woolmer

After suffering over $6 million of physical damage in Hurricane Katrina last year, the New Orleans Museum of Art was subsequently forced to make 85% of its staff redundant. Currently attendance is a fraction of what it was before the storm and revenue has not surprisingly been severely restricted. Forming a part of the museum's $15m Katrina Recovery Campaign, a splendid fundraising exhibition of masterpieces from NOMA and private New Orleans collectors is being staged by Wildenstein & Co. (19 East 64th Street, New York; 1 212 439 0258). Around 100 European and American paintings, sculptures, works on paper and objets d'art from the 14th to the 21st centuries make up the show (17 November-9 February 2007), which represents a cross-section of the museum's holdings. It offers New Yorkers the chance to admire the treasures of NOMA's rich collection, and those of New Orleans's significant art collectors, which include works by G.B. Tiepolo, Natoire, Copley, Bonnard, Degas, Naum Gabo, Picasso, Pollock, Cornell, Bearden and Diebenkorn--the list goes on. The poignancy of the displacement of these works will surely not be lost on visitors to this extraordinary exhibition, the primary aim of which is to raise public awareness of the desperate need of the museum, in the hope of speeding up the reversal of its misfortunes. Let's hope it does just that.

Thirty-two new works by Dale Chihuly ranging in size from diminutive to colossal are currently on view at the Marlborough Gallery (40 West 57th Street; 1 212 541 4900). Coinciding with a major Chihuly installation at the New York Botanical Garden, the exhibition explores the artist's increasing preoccupation with black. Running concurrently is an exhibition of graphic works by the beleaguered but brilliant draughtsman Matthew Carr. Dogged by drug addiction for almost 20 years, Carr rarely exhibited during the last decades of the 20th century. This show--consisting of portrait heads produced since 2000, the year he fully recovered, and abstract, textured compositions--underscores his searingly observational talent. Both shows end 14 October.

Twenty-one large-format colour transparencies of dramatic night-time American cityscapes form the focus of an exhibition at Waddington Galleries (11 Cork Street, London; 44 (0)20 7851 2200). The grand scale of Axel Hutte's images, with their impenetrable, mirror-like surfaces, heightens the anonymity of the urban landscapes they depict. Often ambiguous in content, with tides such as New York, Las Vegas, their glossy patina enhances their other-worldliness whilst reinforcing their quintessentially American film-still qualities. A modern iconography of corporate America, they also have an abstract quality, like luminous collages of fractured urban light. 'After Midnight' runs from 4 until 28 October. It is the simple yet monumental physicality of Anish Kapoor's scultures that endow them with their transcendental grandeur. The Lisson Gallery (29, 52-54 Bell Street, London; 44 (0)20 7724 2739) welcomes Kapoor back to its premises after six years this autumn with a spectacular exhibition (13 October-18 November) of seven new large-scale sculptures, one of which is a piece produced in collaboration with Salman Rushdie. This work--two bronze boxes bound together by red wax and inscribed with two paragraphs of Rushdie's prose--is the culmination of a 20-year 'creative dialogue' with the writer. Maquettes of some of Kapoor's public commissions, including Marsyas (Tate Modern) and Cloud Gate (Millennium Park, Chicago), will also be included.

This year, The Cotswold Art & Antique Dealer's Association 9th Annual exhibition is bigger than ever. Taking place between 7 and 21 October, it includes 23 dealers across the region--nine more than last year. Huntington Antiques Ltd (Church Street, Stow-on-the-Wold; 44 [0] 1451 830842) are hoping to appeal to younger buyers wishing to furnish contemporary homes with fine period pieces such as a rare 16th-century renaissance walnut two-part cabinet. John Noott Galleries (Dickens House, 20 High Street, Broadway; 44 [0]1386 858969) are marking 30 years of business on Broadway's High Street with an exhibition inspired by the location. Artists past and present connected with the town will be included, a particular highlight being a delicate oil, A Broadway Milkmaid, by the American painter Frank Millet, a contemporary and close friend of J.S. Sargent and a Broadway resident for 25 years. Meanwhile, The Titian Gallery (Broadwell House, Sheep Street, Stow-on-the-Wold; 44 (0)1451 830004) will be focusing on British and European oil paintings and watercolours of the 18th and 19th centuries. Marine art, landscape, portraiture, genre and still lifes feature, including a characterful work by Thomas Barker of Bath, The Fortune Teller. For further details on all the participants, go to www.cotswold-antiques-art.com.

A brand new fair showcasing the work of some of today's most sought-after international designer-makers is making its inaugural appearance at Somerset House from 3 to 15 October. Replacing the Chelsea Crafts Fair, Origin: The London Craft Fair is a joint venture between the Crafts Council and Somerset House. A panel of judges whittled down 300 exhibitors from 900 hopefuls working across a huge span of disciplines. Works in glass, jewellery, ceramics, metal, basketry, furniture, textiles and wood will be represented, and visitors will be able to meet the artists and buy their work, at prices ranging from 20 [pounds sterling] to 20,000 [pounds sterling]. For more information go to www.craftscouncil.org.uk/origin.>

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