In the Galleries: Dementia, darling CLOSES August 4 at yellow bear

Using old kitchen towels, tablecloths and other common domestic scraps, St. Louis-based artist Megan Sue Collins creates hand-stitched tableaux that reflect on the nature of craft and culture at large. Dirty Laundry is a line of five small fabric compositions hung with clothing pins to a string; most of its discrete elements simply layer patterns and textures, while one resembles an eerily limp paper bag with holes cut out for eyes. Disease similarly offsets a kind of precious delicacy with macabre intimations; the beige-and-pink two-part piece, hung on brass curtain rods, is intricately threaded, but the main abstract form suggests a malignant growth. OJ Simpson Trials — a piece the size of a small handkerchief — evokes the silhouette of two young girls, bows sweetly tied in their hair, gazing toward a grainy TV monitor on which a vague figure menacingly gesticulates. A daft whimsy permeates these detailed, memory-laden works, but never so much as to undermine their nearly tragic seriousness. They walk the fine line most great humor toes: between ravaging sadness and manic exhilaration. Through August 4 at yellow bear, 5201 Pernod Avenue; 314-210-9300 or www.yellowbearprojects.com. Hours: by appointment only.