A battle over what constitutes "overtly sexual" art unfolded on Long Beach's trendy main thoroughfare on Monday, with an artist demanding that two of her abstract nudes be put back up on the walls of a public exhibition organized by a program that deemed them offensive.
"The two paintings are going back up, or all the paintings are coming down," the artist, who goes by her first name, Christiana, said in reference to a series of more than 70 works titled "4 Chambers" that explores the range of human forms and heartfelt emotions.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, February 18, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Public art: An article in the Feb. 10 California section, about a dispute over two abstract paintings of breasts in a public art exhibition in Long Beach, incorrectly spelled the last name of an artist it quoted, Stephanie Allespach, as Allesbach.
The two paintings in question show women's breasts, which the exhibition sponsors said went too far.
"They've got a problem with nipples," Christiana said. "But there is nothing obscene or pornographic about either of these paintings. Human beings breast-feed, and they've been doing it for millions of years."
Liza Simone, executive producer of Phantom Galleries L.A., which sponsored the exhibition, said, "it's completely up to my discretion what goes up in these exhibitions and what doesn't." Phantom is a for-profit community outreach program that specializes in transforming vacant buildings into temporary art displays.
"The public went bonkers when Janet Jackson revealed one nipple during a Super Bowl game," Simone said. "Anything that could potentially offend someone, we don't show.
"Artists do not decide what is shown and what isn't. We do," she added. "We have quality control."
Simone accused Christiana of "trying to create a fuss for publicity" and "trying to sneak these paintings in through the back door without telling me." She also said the paintings, which include depictions of bright orange and blue lopsided breasts, are "not of good quality."
Simone fears the showdown with Christiana could ruin her program's first venture into Long Beach and scare away future funders of the 3-year-old program modeled after one in San Jose.
"Who wants to fund a troublemaker?" she asked rhetorically. "Christiana is taking down the whole organization right now."
But Christiana, 40, a physical trainer and lifelong artist based in Laguna Beach, was not budging.
"Mastering depictions of nude human figures is a threshold for an artist," she said. "They are telling me my art is offensive, and that hurts."
