Simen Johan, Untitled #150, 2009. Feathers, cocoons, sparrows, insects, foliage, taxidermy, cement, rock, and wood, 36 x 36 x 36 in. Work displayed in “Dead or Alive.”

“Dead or Alive”

New York

Museum of Arts and Design

An exhibition of international artists who turn organic matter into art could be a creepy proposition, But thanks to MAD chief curator David Revere McFadden, joined by senior curator Lowery Stokes Sims and assistant curator Elizabeth Edwards Kirrane, “Dead or Alive” was nothing less than a phantasmagoria of extreme beauty crafted out of feathers, bones, insects, fur, antlers, and stuffed animals —an updated and enlarged version of a Wunderkammersee the full review in June’s magazine.