I'm feeling the pressure of the recession, so to combat it, I'm immersing myself in art shows where my money troubs are pushed aside and I can dive into wild worlds of vastly different imaginations. And yes, it helps that the booze is free as well.

The wildest in NYC are often found at Last Rites Gallery, where this Saturday, August 1st, another sinister show opens entitled New Breed.

Working with the thread of mortality, dark sexuality, beauty and ugliness, the group exhibit features ten artists who have never shown before at the gallery: David R. Choquette, Shay Davis, Mickey M Edtinger, Paul Gerrard, Charlie Immer, Sara Antoinette Martin, Richard Meyer, Reuben Negron, Chris Peters, and Kurt Wiscombe.

In many, you'll also see the influence of tattoo imagery, for example, in the comic grotesque oil paintings of Richard Meyer, in the graphic acrylics of emerging artist Sara Antoinette Martin (see preview/in progress photos here), and in the lush, seductive drawings of renowned tattoo and fine artist Kurt Wiscombe of Winnepeg, Canada (whose tattoo work is a must view).

The opening begins at 7 and runs until 11. And again, the only price of admission -- considering the venue -- is your soul.