August is harvest time for the yearly crop of new art grads. Irvine Contemporary, Conner Contemporary, and Project 4 are each hosting shows featuring the ripest of the bunch, their walls, ceilings, and floors strewn with the efforts of these Bachelor and Master of Fine Art recipients. DCist couldn’t resist grabbing a basket of our own, so over the next few weeks we’ll be tracking down the Up and Comers, those we think are especially worthy of your attention — and if you’re the gambling type, maybe even a hefty investment.

First, however, we turn our eye to the shows as a whole, and if you were thinking, “Man, I haven’t seen nearly enough damn creepy art,” Irvine Contemporary has what you need with their show, Introductions 2. Entering the gallery you’re greeted by a series of dolls, and I don’t mean Barbie and Friends. They’re Melissa Ichiuji’s (BFA, Corcoran) “doll-like sculptures,” which she assembles with everything from pantyhose to buffalo hooves. Afternoon Delight is a pair of girls sewn with antique-looking fabric screen-printed with scenes of young lovers. While their romantic skin and flat chests say “innocent,” their full hips, swollen genitalia, animal horns, and position — one standing behind the other, who’s bent over at the waist — tell a different story.

Ichijui’s exploration of adolescent sexuality is both fascinating and supremely disturbing, but that might be less because of her sculptures’ plain vulgarity, and more because it throws in our faces things we, adults, would rather pretend don’t exist. While we try to look we away, Ichijui pulls us back with her intricate handiwork, such as the small figs covered in multicolored thread and bursting through the pantyhose covering Fertile Girl (pictured).

The creepiness continues in a slightly different incarnation with Emily Denlinger’s (MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art) photographic collages. She creates detailed miniature puppets, and tries to bring them to life by photographing them in front of her handmade theater sets. Denlinger’s effort to bring a somewhat tired medium and somewhat tired subject matter (she, too, explores adolescent sexuality), is only just outweighed by her technical skill and mastery of set-making. Only just.