By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TIMES SQUARE — A new wall mural commissioned by the Times Square Alliance has inspired outrage and accusations that the artist is stereotyping Latino and Black women.
Sofia Maldonado, a Latina artist herself, painted the work displaying scantily dressed women, often with emphasized cleavage and long, colored fingernails.
Groups such as the New York City Black Professionals and Phenomenal Women Group Inc. staged a small protest on Wednesday calling for the Times Square Alliance, a business improvement district, to take down the mural.
"I had to come by and see this for myself," said Mary Alice Miller, a Brooklyn resident and writer from Our Time Press. "If there was some diversity in this art I wouldn't be so offended, but this depiction is offensive."
Miller was concerned that tourists would come to Times Square and interpret the depictions in the mural as reality.
Maldonado has defended her work, which stretches along a wall on 42nd Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.
"I want to recognize that these women, especially Caribbean women, dress like this and they should be respected in society the same way women with, like, briefcases or cell phones [are]," she told My Fox New York.
Adelina Sklyar, who is providing legal advice to the protesting groups, told DNAinfo that there is no legal basis to force removal of the art.
In a combined statement from the protesting groups, they called for the resignation of the director of art projects for the Times Square Alliance, Glenn Weiss.
"The art is an affront to all hardworking Black and Latino women who struggle to maintain their dignity in a world that feels that there is no repercussions for disrespecting them," read the statement, which was handed out to those who passed by the mural Wednesday evening.
The Times Square Alliance did not return a call for comment.
