“I often think my seamstress ancestors would be slightly scandalized by my efforts,” says artist Alicia Mikles of her sewn forms – part lingerie, part amphibian fantasy – that will be part of the three-person “Visceral” show opening at Kingston Museum of Contemporary Art (KMoCA) in the Rondout section of Kingston this Saturday evening, September 3. Just consider her influences, from the wicked Luis Buñuel film Belle de Jour to artists Louise Bourgeois and Meret Oppenheim, or such a stated combination of things as fungus, vintage clothing, medical apparatus and the body. “The movie Pan’s Labyrinth, as well as the books Geek Love and Angels and Insects,” she adds. “Ernst Haeckel, Eva Hesse and Kiki Smith…folklore and vintage magazines.”

Here, with wall pieces and hopefully one of her monumentally dreamlike sculptures on view, she’ll be sharing mental and physical space, along with echoing impacts, alongside Sigrid Sarda’s life-sized installation commenting on the current economy, The Old Woman in the Shoe, and Deborah Zlotsky’s “vegetanimal” drawings that, like Mikles’ work, seem both plant- and bodylike simultaneously. All three artists use elements of “thrifting,” “mash-ups” and fantastical allegory commenting on current issues in their work.

Talk about a perfect reflection for the times, especially combined with the various other openings and shows up around Kingston this Saturday. The latter include the opening of “SpOor,” an exhibition of works on paper by artists “playing an open-ended visual game based on their individual responses to the word spoor” at Oo Gallery, located at 324 Wall Street in Uptown Kingston; visit www.ooart.co. There’s also Lorraine Glessner’s “Intersections” at the Gallery at R & F, located at 84 Ten Broeck Avenue in Midtown Kingston; call (845) 331-3112 or visit www.rfpaints.com. Or check out the “Combined and Twine” virtual exhibit of new works by Ontario-based artists Julia White and Steven White at the Deep Listening Space, located in the Shirt Factory at 77 Cornell Street, Suite 303, also in Midtown Kingston; call (845) 338-5984 or visit www.deeplistening.org. Also worth discovering is whatever’s coming up next at PostUrban Contemporary Art’s exhibition space in the offices of Andrea Barouch-Hebb Acupuncture at 210 Wall Street, back in Uptown Kingston; call (845) 309-3633 or visit http://posturbanart.wordpress.com.

You’ve got to hand it to Kingston art: It has come a long way from its earlier impersonations of classic landscape artists or would-be Outsiders. It’s hip, professional and slowly building up its own rural/urban aesthetic.

The Mikles/Sarda/Zlotsky “Visceral” exhibit at KMoCA opens with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. this Saturday, September 3 at 103 Abeel Street, just down from the Armadillo. For further information visit www.kmoca.org.