C.M. Ruiz, photographed at 1315 First Avenue—the former home of the Lusty Lady. Credit: KELLY O

C.M. Ruiz, photographed at 1315 First Avenue—the former home of the Lusty Lady.

C.M. Ruiz, photographed at 1315 First Avenue—the former home of the Lusty Lady. KELLY O

C.M. Ruiz is sitting on a dusty floor, unrolling an oversize Xerox print of a woman—a photograph taken by photographer and artist Megumi Shauna Arai. Ruiz collaborated with Arai to make a series of collage paintings for a new art show opening May 5 inside the former home of the much-missed downtown peep-show venue the Lusty Lady…

Kelly O—formerly a Stranger staff photographer, music writer, Drunk of the Week columnist, and more!—finished art school and a soul-crushing internship at a corporate advertising agency in Detroit,...