Parents blast 'smut' gallery next to school
A Lower East Side gallery is giving schoolchildren too much of an arts education.
"Porno Paintings," a series of sexually explicit canvases inspired by scenes from Internet pornography, is visible to anyone walking by the Windows Gallery on Orchard Street -- and parents are fuming.
"I definitely disapprove of this being on display near my daughter's school," said Elvin Almonte, 33, whose 5-year-old girl attends neighboring PS 42.
"I don't want to have to be answering questions in reference to those dirty paintings. It sickens me that little kids could see that right there through those windows," he said.
The threesomes, fetishes and other hardcore visuals -- the work of Hamptons artist Nick Weber -- prompted complaints by officials and parents at PS 42, as well as a visit by the police, since the show went up several weeks ago, owner Dino Eli said.
"The police officer said that the schools and the church nearby complained," he said. "The paintings have been up for two weeks, and this is the third time the cops came."
An NYPD spokesman said he wasn't aware of any complaints.
According to one PS 42 teacher, the principal did lodge a complaint "but was told nothing could be done. It's horrible."
Another teacher, William Garley, 34, said the gallery should remove the paintings from street view.
"That's pretty disgusting. Our kids walk by there," he said. "Our children shouldn't see something like that."
Defending the work, and the placement of the paintings, artist Weber said children are exposed "to much worse."
"They're afraid it's going to corrupt the kids, when kids can watch people getting shot on TV," he said.
Although oil is often used in pornography, it isn't usually the type that winds up on a canvas, Weber said.
"It's art," he said. "I started doing them because I was conflicted about how something that is bad could be beautiful. They are not photographs -- they take about six months to paint."
Parents disagree
"That's not art; that's just porn," Joanna Morillo, 28, said. "When little kids see that, they will ask questions. That shouldn't be out here."
Paintings of a man sucking on someone else's foot, or a threesome being a watched by another man, are no longer smut, the gallery owner said.
"Porn is the norm," he said.
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