It is not often that you get to see a plaster cast of a vagina hanging on a wall. However, at the recent art exhibition Work in Process, organized by the student group Residential Area Real Art (RARA), there were at least six.

Almost 100 years ago, French painter Claude Monet began one of his last great masterpieces. After his death, the work, the triptych titled “Agapanthus,” was eventually split up. Today, after more than 50 years of separation, its pieces hang together in the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM), located on Art Hill in Forest Park.

Ranging from “Metabolics” in 2009 to “Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other” last year, Washington University’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has often provided a forum for avant-garde or atypical art forms. Its two new fall openings, “Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany” and “Tomás Saraceno: Cloud-Specific,” certainly keep with this tradition.

St. Louis boasts a variety of contemporary art galleries and museums. Though many Washington University students know of the Kemper Art Museum here on campus and Saint Louis Art Museum just up Art Hill, they may not be as privy to the art available a bit farther outside the bubble. As close as the Delmar Loop, or as far as downtown St. Louis, options are bountiful. Here are some of my favorite selections.

Picasso is well known for his Blue Period, but can contemporary art sustain a Green Period? On Wednesday at 4 p.m., speakers from Washington University and the local community will meet to discuss the relationship between the arts and the environment. Those who attend will participate and guide the discussion.

Last Sunday, freshmen art students from Professor Mary Borgman’s Drawing II class displayed their work in “Mastercopy and Portrait Exhibition.” Organized by Residential Area Real Art (RARA), the event was the first of its kind to take place in the newly built College Hall on the South 40.

The likelihood of a little bakery and art studio surviving on a random street near Tower Grove Park seemed slim. But suddenly there it was: a startlingly successful bakery, bustling with business on a Saturday afternoon.

Art XX, a student group that developed out of Washington University’s co-op, plans events that bring underrepresented artists and their work to the Wash. U. and St. Louis communities. Through shows and discussions, Art XX hopes to expose students to contemporary art and foster a more open and creative atmosphere on campus.

In collaboration with WUSLAM, Residential Area Real Art installed an exhibit in the DUC Visitor’s Lounge in response to the campus wide smoking ban, the oil spill and global pollution.

Last year, with “Chance Aesthetics” and “Metabolics,” the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum chose to showcase artistic movements that relied heavily on chance. This year, in “Rivane Neuenschwander: A Day Like Any Other,” the museum takes it a step further.