By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — "Pornucopia," a salacious art exhibit in a Lower East Side Gallery, has riled up its Orthodox Jewish neighbors who complain children are being exposed to the racy artwork, according to reports.
The exhibit, on display at the Allegra LaViola Gallery at 179 East Broadway, features paintings, sculptures and videos examining the "excess and pornography in artwork" and several of the pieces include images of naked men and women having sex, according to ARTINFO.com.
Members of the Orthodox Jewish community say the artwork, some of which is visible in the gallery windows, should be covered up so students at a nearby Yeshiva can't see it, the website reported.
"This is disgusting. This is absolutely unacceptable," Miriam Katz, a teacher at the nearby Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem, told the New York Post. "My students are innocent children, and they walk by and shouldn't be exposed to this disgrace. This is pornography."
Allegra LaViola, the owner of the gallery, said she's received several complaints and phone calls and has even had a couple visits from police regarding the exhibit, according to reports.
"The police just came by due to complaints about PORNUCOPIA being obscene!," she said via Twitter on March 2.
LaViola defended the exhibit and said New Yorkers should be used to seeing provocative images, adding she had already put the least graphic paintings in the windows, ARTINFO reported.
"Overall the real problem is that the Orthodox community really does not like any kind of display of nudity whatsoever," LaViola told the website. "They have been here for a long time, and the relative newcomers who are starting to open up in the area are unsettling them a little bit."
"Pornucopia" is on display at the Allegra LaViola Gallery, 179 East Broadway through March 18.
