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Andrew Wodzianski's mustache deserves to be framed along with the 40 or so works of art he has lined up along the walls of the Fraser Gallery. It's fashioned in that old saloonkeeper style, long, dark and twisted to a point at both ends. You don't know whether to ask a serious question about his upcoming show or order a whiskey and tell him to leave the bottle. Mustache wax keeps everything in place.

"Lunch would be very difficult if I didn't use it," he says, comparing a pair of pieces from his "Androids" series of illustrations.

District-based artist Kristina Bilonick, a friend of Wodzianski's, says his look is always evolving.

"He kind of has a fun fashion sense that changes all the time," she says. "It's like he's dressing as a character every time he goes out."

Wodzianski's style mirrors his chameleonic slide from one project to the next. For years, he has been known in art circles for paintings that feature allegorical masks and disguises. But with a pair of shows this month, Wodzianski is shifting gears.

"I find myself not wanting to be pigeonholed," he says. "For someone entering the mid-career stage of his life, it's kind of a death curse."

At Flashpoint in the District, Wodzianski is displaying a series of paintings inspired by the 1959 film "The House on Haunted Hill." At the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda, a collection of Androids will fill the space until Nov. 14. The mixed media pieces are not new — they first appeared at the Warehouse Gallery in fall 2006 — but this is his first solo exhibition of the illustrations at Fraser. Nine have not been on display anywhere before.

The series is inspired by Tomy's Mighty Men & Monster Maker, a late '70s and '80s toy that allowed children to create rubbings of creatures using interchangeable plates and a box of crayons. Spin-offs included cartoon characters and fashion models. Wodzianski received the original as a gift at age 4 and became fascinated with the differences between the girl and boy versions. He has purchased nearly 40 sets and uses rubbings as starting points for hand-drawn figures that he colors, cuts out and mounts on scrapbook paper.

"I just started to play on my fantasy, which was to gender-bend them," the 34-year-old recalls. "It was just complete AC/DC. After doing that enough times, I realized that it was witty on a surface level. But if you look past the superficial, there are deeper connotations about how we raise our children and sexual orientation."

One shows Kermit the Frog in a dress flanked by Animal and Miss Piggy. Another Android depicts the original Dora the Explorer reaching up the leg of the sexed-up teenage version.

"I always try to straddle this line where things are just at the edge of being over the top," Wodzianski explains. "The image of Dora is done with just enough restraint so it's not giving people the money shot."

Raised in rural Pennsylvania and educated at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Wodzianski teaches at the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) and has been represented by the Fraser Gallery since 2001.

The D.C. resident has had a few bruises along the way. After his first solo show at the gallery in 2003, Washington Post art critic Jessica Dawson brought down the hammer. He subsequently immortalized her in an illustration called, "Jessica, This May Sting a Little."

"He was completely devastated by the review," gallery owner Catriona Fraser recalls. "So he's done this little homage to [Dawson], but it's nothing like it could have been. He could have been a lot harsher."

Wodzianski shook it off and no longer views Dawson as a dream-crusher. The critic gave him a more favorable review last summer.

"You learn to wear bad reviews like a badge of honor," he says. "I think her writings have become increasingly sophisticated, and I'm beginning to agree with her more often than not."

With the Dora piece and images of towering, short-skirted women, it's easy to label the Androids series as misogynist. Not so fast, says art history professor Lynn Clement-Bremer, who teaches at CSM as well as American University.

"I think when you really examine what he's doing, it seems to be this juxtaposition between beauty and power," she says. "He's denying some of that sexuality by replacing body parts and cropping compositions. And it's something that's really approachable to an audience because it involves pop culture references that you can obviously recognize."

Arlington-based collector Natasha Gianvecchio owns four of Wodzianski's pieces, including three Androids. She acknowledges the gender statements, but says the other side — the fun side — convinced her to purchase them a few years ago.

"I feel like for a couple generations of people, the use of the Fashion Plates to create them is really nostalgic," she says. "They're beautiful pieces. People come into our house and are so intrigued by the Androids."

Whatever the pieces mean, Fraser hopes the show at her gallery and the Flashpoint exhibit will heighten Wodzianski's profile.

"He is always changing the theme," she says. "I'm hoping he will get the well-deserved attention that he should have been receiving."

"Abra Cadaver" runs through Nov. 14 at the Fraser Gallery, 7700 Wisconsin, Ave., Suite E, Bethesda. Gallery hours are 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call 301-718-9651 or visit thefrasergallery.com.