For galleries in New York, fall begins on September 4. With the end of the summer comes new exhibitions that must be feted, and on the first Thursday after Labor Day, Chelsea will turn into an art-frenzied block party, with the area between 19th and 25th streets and Ninth and Tenth avenues flooded with gallery-goers. This September offers shows that address contemporary trends, including environmentally oriented exhibitions, visually disorienting installations, works that incorporate music and video, and a fair share of representation from abroad.

The Yossi Milo Gallery will show the photographs of Argentinean-raised Alessandra Sanguinetti, exhibited in a show called “The Life that Came.” This project is a continuation of “The Adventures of Guille and Belinda and the Enigmatic Meaning of their Dreams,” a series of vivid photographs which investigate the quirky relationship between and development of two young cousins growing up on the expansive farms outside Buenos Aires.

At Aperture Gallery, also opening on September 4, is Josef Koudelka’s photographic documentation of what came to be known as the Prague Spring, when Warsaw Pact tanks, led by the Soviet Union, invaded Prague and sent the city into a chaotic phase of protestation and turmoil. The black-and-white photographs were smuggled out of the country and subsequently awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award in 1969, though Mr. Koudelka would not identify himself as the photographer until 1984.

For a more uplifting experience, Mario Naves shows “Postcards From Florida,” a series of delicate collages inspired by sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico, at the Elizabeth Harris Gallery. Two photographers make their gallery debuts on September 4: Michael Thompson at Hasted Hunt and Kate O’Donovan Cook at the Stephen Haller Gallery. Mr. Thompson typically creates colorful and striking portraits of beautiful and famous women for fashion magazines and advertisements. The Stephen Haller Gallery strays from its usual focus on painting to present the work of Ms. Cook, who stages intriguing narratives for her photographs, often using herself as the model for multiple characters, male or female. The effect is similar to that of a painting, with dramatic lighting and spatial compositions.

Paula Cooper presents gallerygoers with some old favorites, including the work of Christian Marclay at 521 W. 21st St. and Carl Andre at 534 W. 21st St., breaking the mold by opening two days later, on September 6. Mr. Marclay is credited with being among the first to experiment with turntables as a way to create original compositions. For his visual work, he often uses records or instruments to construct sculptures, fusing visual and musical art forms.

The Syrian sculptor Diana Al-Hadid also uses music objects in her work, creating massive, seemingly aged and distorted organs. Her show “Daily Serving” opens at Perry Rubenstein, also on September 4.

A Californian artist, Chris Johanson, will transform the Deitch Projects’ Wooster Street gallery into a visual journey culminating in a “space temple.” Viewers will first pass by a checkerboard of skin tones before walking through a wooden tunnel into a room filled with paintings of the past, present, and future. The experience is meant to stimulate contemplation of the vulnerability of the earth.

Also by Deitch Projects, the artist Swoon’s seven boats made from found materials — and an accompanying 40-person crew — will end their voyage in time for the big art week. The boats were launched from Troy, N.Y., on August 15 and are currently making their way down the Hudson River, and there will be several musical performances along the way. The “floating sculptural city” will be united with the artist’s images inspired by Florida’s mangrove swamps, which she grew up with, juxtaposed against images of an urban landscape, at the Deitch Project’s Long Island City gallery.

For another installation piece, the Swedish artist Aleksandra Mir plans to turn Mary Boone’s Chelsea gallery into an artist’s newsroom for a solo show titled “Newsroom 1986-2000,” to open on September 15. The artist and three assistants will create drawings that are replicas of the tabloid covers that followed two stories, one of a rape in Central Park, and the other of a love triangle on Long Island, which were, according the artist, the two longest-running news stories during the 15 years prior to September 11, 2001.

Pace’s 22nd Street gallery exhibits colorful sculptures by Keith Tyson, whose compositions were determined by the rolling of a die, also opening on September 4. The Korean artist Lee Ufan’s paintings will be on display at Pace’s 25th and 57th street galleries starting on September 19. The shows will display Mr. Ufan’s mastery of multiple media, featuring works on paper, oil paintings, mixed-media paintings, wall drawings, and sculptures.

The long list of female artists with solo shows opening this September includes the British artist Lucy McKenzie, whose paintings and prints will be on display at the Museum of Modern Art between September 10 and December 1. Also, Cecily Brown’s colorful Expressionist paintings will go up at Gagosian on September 20. Her painterly canvases are abstract but for the female figures, only slightly detectable in the mess of colorful brushstrokes.