Nature Freak

Last year a team of researchers in South Korea showed off a genetically modified kitty that glowed red when exposed to ultraviolet light. It’s a step toward their goal of reproducing animals on the verge of extinction. Awesome, right? Maybe not. In the aptly titled group show Nature Freak (through October 4), artists Renée Adams, Howard Barlow, Shannon Eakins, Justin Gibbens, Eugene Parnell, Jim Rittimann, and Amy Ross share their various interpretations of what could happen if we tampered with Mother Nature. Gibbens’ Audubon-influenced watercolor paintings show Medusa-esque geese with multiple writhing heads. Parnell’s Charismatic Megafauna [D: Diffident] features a taxidermic hyena inspecting an old home-movie projector in the desert. This gorgeously bizarre collection will fascinate and disturb gallery visitors—regardless of whether they’ve got a favorite pet at home they’d like to clone. (See more of Parnell’s standout work at his solo exhibit Weasels! Cryptozoological Reconstructions at Punch Gallery through September 27.) Kirkland Arts Center, 620 Market St., 425-822-7161, www.kirklandartscenter.org. Free. 11 a.m.–6 p.m. ERIKA HOBART

Mondays-Saturdays, 11 a.m. Starts: Sept. 15. Continues through Oct. 4, 2008