Last Chance

Catch it or Regret It

by Holly Otterbein

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NATURAL ORDER

Awkward relationships, whether between two middle-schoolers crushin' on each other or Angela and Dwight, are always comical. David Kimelman, a photographer from Brooklyn, agrees: "A lot of my pictures are about the uncomfortable relationship people have with nature, and I think uncomfortable relationships are inherently funny."

In Long Walks on the Beach (pictured), for example, an elderly couple — one sporting a bikini and the other a leopard-print thong — trot hand in hand, their skin poking out and folding up in all sorts of unsavory, humorous ways. "[That] represents the upside of the relationship," says Kimelman. "In this case the subjects' environment, the beach, is fostering a very tender and genuine human moment."

Other pieces are less precious — Offering provides an up-close look at a butchered chicken, and Tall Hedge examines the always-off interactions between nature and industry. But Kimelman claims his work is less about environmentalism than it seems. "My main interest is in what our relationship to the natural world says about us. You can tell so much about a person by how he treats his mom," he says. "I feel the same is true of us people, and our mother, nature." Ends Aug. 26, Hudson Beach Glass, 26 S. Strawberry St., 267-319-1887, hudsonbeachglasspa.com.

FILTHY

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KISS'D CRACKED WORLD

Michael Maier's digital works are what Jean-Michel Basquiat might've created had he owned Microsoft Paint. And local Bryce LeVan Cushing, aka MoonFire Tower, displays his trashy, oddly realistic sculptures. Ends Aug. 27, 305 Cherry St., 267-519-2737, twelvegatesgallery.com.

(holly.otterbein@citypaper.net)