Now Showing

Oh Me! Oh My! For his annual Pirate solo, Denver sculptor Michael Brohman shows off his usual approach by creating pieces that combine one part conceptual art with one part teenage-boy gross-out material. A good example of this unlikely pairing of sensibilities is "Prick" — and doesn't that incendiary title say it all? — in which an abstracted bust has been sculpted from horse manure and covered with porcupine quills, with the entire assemblage mounted on a steel column. Less disgusting, though equally unnerving, are Brohman's weird "Babylope" sculptures, depicting babies with antlers in metal. The bizarre forms were inspired by the artist's stay in Wyoming, where the mythic Jackalope — a jackrabbit with antlers — looms large in the local folklore. As usual, Brohman eschews cute depictions, rendering the babylopes trussed up like game or smashed on the ground as roadkill. The figures are not without their charms, something that can't be said for Brohman's ugly and stomach-turning "Chicababies," which are plucked chickens with babies' heads. Through September 30 at Pirate Contemporary Art, 3655 Navajo Street, 303-458-6058. — Michael Paglia