Weiners Get Framed

Shortly after former Congressman Anthony Weiner got nailed for exposing himself to young women over the Internet, Cuban artist Alejandro Galindo showed up at the World Erotic Art Museum to expose curator and owner Naomi Wilzig to a slew of phalluses. In this case, though, it was mutually beneficial that she make the erotic revelations visible to the world. “I thought, What an appropriate time for him to come by. He just hit the nail on the head,” Wilzig says. The surrealist, phallocentric oil paintings feature penis portraits that vary from peek-a-boo to in-your-face portrayals of the male sex organ. The artist’s renderings range from surprising and eclectic juxtapositions (one piece features a penis as a lighthouse, surrounded by naked female bodies that constitute the terrain, from which grows high, unruly grass that is actually pubic hair) to ones that resemble well-drawn, erotic comic books (in which a bull wielding a well-endowed member laughs itself to tears at a matador’s comparatively diminutive package). The artist was born in Havana in 1945 and began a passionate exploration of the arts at an early age. As a young adult, he exhibited his work in Madrid and many Latin American cities. In recent years, his paintings have been featured at several galleries and exhibitions in Miami and New York. He also writes, builds props, and designs sets for Miami’s Havanafama Theatrical Company. Galindo’s show, “Whimsical Fantasies,” opens at WEAM Thursday and runs through September 26.
Sept. 1-26, 11 a.m., 2011