Performa 09 party via Artinfo

-To benefit Performa 09, party designer Jennifer Rubell invites 600 guests to “Creation” held at X Initiative in Chelsea in New York, where 3,600 drinking glasses, a pyramid of unshelled peanuts and 2,000 pound hillock of honey-soaked ribs were among the excess of food being served (Performa 09/ Food for Thought) [The Moment]

-In related, To mark the start of Performa 09 MoMA invited Fischerspooner to stage a show (Performance Art Enters the Museum) [Artinfo]

-In related, At Haunch of Venison in New York Marina Abramovich, Leandro Erlich, Mickalene and Rob Wynn pair with NYC pastry chefs to create performances; cakes were served by topless models (Kreemart or Cream Art Performance at Haunch of Venison) [NY Art Beat]

-Bikes used by Lance Armstrong and with frames designed by contemporary artists fetch $1.3 million at auction in Sotheby’s, among them Damien Hirst’s sold for $500,000 (Armstrong’s Tour de France Bikes Fetch $1.3 Million at Auction) [Bloomberg]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week…

Innocence Lost, Damien Hirst via Art Fag City

-Available from a publishing house founded by Damiein Hirst, Hugh Allan and Frank Dunphy is a Damien Hirst’s editioned, baby bottle with an alcohol drenched sausage inside [Other Criteria via Art Fag City]

-In related, A visiting Professor to the London Business School uses Hirst’s past 20 years of experience as a case study for building original business strategies in the art market [Financial Times]

-One of Ukraine’s richest men, Viktor Pinchuk, plans to build a contemporary art center in Kiev – bigger than his existing PinchukArtCenter which is the first private center of contemporary art in the former USSR [Bloomberg]

One of Jeff Koons Puppy sculptures via Animal New York

-As Peter Brant speaks of his divorce he comments that the Jeff Koons Puppy sculpture costs between $75,000 and $100,000 a year to maintain [ArtReview]

-The  Power 100 begets the Powerless-20, the 20 least significant people in the art world [Hyperallergic]

James Rosenquist via The New York Times

-Mr. Rosenquist, one of the Pop art icons of the 60s, writes a memoir titled “Painting Below Zero” (Rosenquist Writ Large, by Himself) [The New York Times]

-As auction houses and art fairs attract the media spotlight, 53 influential New York dealers and seven not-for-profits unite to create “New York Gallery Week” [Lindsay Pollock]

Felix Gonzalez-Torres billboard on sixth avenue and Canal street, New York via Purple Diary

-Flag Art Foundation organizes a show of billboards created by Felix-Gonzalez-Torres and Jim Hodges to be scattered in various locations in New York [Flag Art Foundation]

-Van Gogh’s letters are translated to English and are presented along with the originals on a new site [Art Market Monitor]