Embroidered X-Rays: Stitching Skin Over Bones

Stripped skeletal legs jut out of from a soft swamp; bare skulls bloom back into life with sewn skin; fleshy toes dipped in grass crown boney feet — this imagery from artist Matthew Cox traverses from kitsch into captivating. His paradox remixes the masculine, technical, sterile x-rays with the feminine, crafty, tangible embroidery. It’s delightfully creepy too. Read more »

A Boney Axe and Other Skeletal Sculptures

Canadian artist Maskull Lasserre master-carves backbones out of branches, fetus skulls out of bedposts and pianos into hunks of hanging meat. He chisels at a flock of wooden hangers until they look like a cluster of bird wing bones. Maybe the axe is less functional as a weapon with its body turned into a delicate serpent skeleton, but it’s badass. See Lasserre’s metamorphic carpentry at “Corporal,” Group Show, Jul 16 – Aug 6, Pierre-Francois Ouellette Art Contemporain, Montreal

The Bat Cave, that old power plant along the Gowanus Canal, is no longer broadcasting anti-corporate messages to Brooklyn. The rooftop roller declaring “No More Corporate Bullshit! Fuck Wall St.” has been targeted, selectively painted over while other graffiti remains. At this provides a clean canvas for a new message from Booker, or anyone else with something to say. |Brownstoner|

Photos by Barry Yanowitz and Brownstoner

Graffiti writer READER’s recent stint in New Orleans caught the eye of the Times-Picayune art critic Doug MacCash. Although “always ambivalent about reviewing graffiti,” the arts writer deems the illegal work “worthwhile.” Read more »