Call him Mr. September: Manhattan gallerist Jeffrey Deitch is bowing five substantial new shows this week (as if Fashion Week didn't already offer enough distraction). Tomorrow, his Grand Street gallery opens a group exhibit dubbed Conceptual Figures, which explores, er, conceptual figuration in the vein of Duchamp and Currin. Meanwhile, over at his Wooster space, you'll find Brooklyn artist Chris Johanson's Totalities, an installation that features plants, animals, sculpture, and painting (pictured), all housed in a structure hewn from salvaged wood. "It's one of the very best shows we've ever put on," says Deitch. "He built a homemade spaceship." (Richard Branson, eat your heart out.)

Things become more Halloweeny on Saturday, as the fourth annual Art Parade marches down West Broadway with 80 projects in tow. (One highlight: a person-for-person re-creation of the float scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off.) Then on Sunday, the festivities move out to Long Island City, with low-rider sculptures by Puerto Rican artist Dzine, and a floating exhibit of seven scrap-metal boats by wheat-paste queen Swoon and 100 collaborators. (The title? Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, of course.) It goes without saying that the gallerist is in high gear, so how does he view all this hubbub? "For me," Deitch says, "this is the most exciting period in art since the early eighties." Not that we don't believe him, but then again, he would say that.
Deitch Projects 76 Grand St., 18 Wooster St., and 4-40 44th Dr., NYC, (212) 343-7300, deitch.com