Works by Ai Weiwei, "Traveling Light," left, a glass crystals, tieli wood, steel, electric lights sculpture atop a column from a destroyed Qing dynasty temple, and "Descending Light," a glass crystals, stainless brass, and electric lights sculpture, both from 2007, sit on display at Mary Boone Gallery in New York on March 11, 2008. The works will be on display at the gallery through April 26. Source: Mary Boone Gallery, New York via Bloomberg News

According to Bloomberg news -- From detailed ``skeletons'' of cartoon icons to a futuristic 3-D animation by China's 29-year- old maverick Cao Fei, works by Asian artists are starring in Chelsea gallery shows during Asian Contemporary Art Week.

A gigantic, ruby-red crystal chandelier at Mary Boone Gallery marks the first major New York solo show by Ai Weiwei, one of China's leading contemporary artists. (He participated in the prestigious Documenta exhibition in Germany last summer).

Made with 60,000 red crystals, each applied by hand, the multi-tiered structure looks like a wedding cake, collapsed sideways on the floor. Sexy, gaudy and mesmerizing, it's a feat of craftsmanship and engineering.

Ai's 18-foot-tall chandelier from 2002 fetched $657,000 at Sotheby's New York last September, setting the artist's auction record. (In comparison, Yue Minjun's ``Execution'' painting took in $5.9 million at Sotheby's London just a few weeks later.)

Prices for the light works at Mary Boone Gallery range from $500,000 to $1 million. ``Illumination'' runs through April 26 at 541 W. 24th St.; +1-212-752-2929; http://www.maryboonegallery.com.

Cartoon Skeletons

Some of America's favorite cartoon characters are the subject of a group of drawings and sculptures by Yale-educated Korean artist Hyungkoo Lee at Arario Gallery, the New York branch of the gallery headquartered in Cheonan, South Korea.

Don't expect fluffy ears and big, goofy eyes: Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck appear as skeletons in ``Animatuseum.'' It's full of humor, as well as technical and imaginative bravura.

Lee, who represented Korea with these pieces at the Venice Biennale last year, had to imagine the hypothetical anatomy of, say, Wile E. Coyote. He cast its parts in resin and assembled the bones with archeological precision.

Surrounded by pools of light in a pitch-black gallery, the white skeletal shapes are suspended in midair on barely visible strings. In one room, the cartoon cat Tom chases the tiny mouse Jerry down a black runway. In another, the Road Runner flees Coyote.

Latin titles land the works a scientific air -- ``Annas Animatus'' (Donald Duck) and ``Lepus Animatus'' (Bugs Bunny). The drawings, in which the artist works out the kinks of future sculptures, are full of numbers, diagrams and ratios.

Lee's sculptures come in editions of three with one artist's proof. Prices range from $70,000 to $170,000. The show runs through April 19 at 521 W. 25th St.; +1-212-206-2760; http://www.arariogallery.com.

Future City

The soft, rhythmic sounds of electronic music set the tone of Cao Fei's third solo show at Lombard-Freid Projects.

The exhibition, ``RMB City,'' functions as the leasing office for the virtual utopian megalopolis named after the Chinese currency RMB, (renminbi), literally the ``people's currency,'' also known as the yuan. The city is part of Second Life, a popular virtual world on the Internet.

Cao Fei's Second Life avatar, China Tracy, has become one of the lead developers of the virtual city.

The artworks in the show -- a 3-D animation video displayed underneath a pool of water, large-scale color digital prints and a white architectural model of the city -- function as promotional materials to attract potential buyers to RMB City. (You can purchase virtual property in Second Life with real money).

The pieces are seductive in a sleek, futuristic way. They also represent an interesting contrast to Cao Fei's last show at the gallery. It featured videos of ordinary people dancing in the streets of China and New York's Chinatown and installations of clothing hangers, laundry lines and empty beer bottles