Where to buy...Jay Howell

Jay Howell’s work straddles the line between kid-friendly and phantasmagoric. For his latest gallery show, the Los Angeles–based artist and animator invented all manner of strange creatures. There are anteater-like people standing in a pyramid (above), bug-eyed dogs that capture the frenetic eagerness of their real-life counterparts, and three-headed aliens who sport double chins and mohawk haircuts. Freed from the constraints of his day job in television animation, Howell has let loose. His small, brightly colored Plasticine figures appear to be not so much sculpted as spawned by some glowing primordial blob. At FFDG, 2277 Mission St., San Francisco, (415) 500-2166. From $300 to $1,800.