An art gallery ordered by police to remove nude paintings after receiving complaints from the public responded by covering every single wall with images of nudity, according to a report.
The Chair Gallery in Hay-on-Wye, Wales, first began receiving the complaints in September after displaying a painting of a nude woman in their window. Now, 50 images of naked people of all genders line the gallery's walls, as reported by the BBC.
Val Harris, the gallery's owner, said she wants the collection of pieces by more than 30 artists to serve as a way to "normalize" nudity, as reported by The Telegraph.
"There is now a full-frontal male nude in the window, and men just pass by and laugh, there's a bid off ribaldry. Women also find it funny. You can imagine," Harris told The Telegraph. "But when we had the female image in the window, despite her having a thong on, people were outraged and offended."
Harris told the BBC that she has not heard parents or children "be offended by it" since adding the nude male artwork to the window.
"I think people were uncomfortable about the position of the woman but support for this exhibition has been really positive," Harris told the BBC.
The painting in question that began the controversy was "This is not P***ography" by Poppy Baynham. The painting depicts a naked woman with her legs spread wearing red cowboy boots.
Harris said that nudity is fairly common in artwork, and did not think anything of it at the time when choosing to put Baynham's painting on display.
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