A new exhibition at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, “Art on the Edge: Fear and Censorship in an Era of Political Turmoil,” highlights artists who had planned exhibitions canceled, artwork taken down or exhibitions closed early.
According to the National Art Education Association, censorship of art is the removal of certain artworks from public display, to label particular work as controversial or to identify particular artworks and artists as offensive. Often, organizations feel pressure to remove any art that may be deemed objectionable or evoke a controversial reaction.
The Jazz Gallery Center says a vital role of an artist is to respond to the issues of the times and creatively challenge viewers to give deeper thought to the matters in question.
The exhibition opened Friday, Oct. 18 and will run through Nov. 23. Participating artists include Amal Azzam, Barbra Reinhart, Nayfa Naji, Seth Ter Haar and Susan Simensky Bietila.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
“The lesson I draw is not so much a personal thing,” featured artist Bietila said. “It just proves once again what this all means for the future of freedom for artists, writers and anybody to express their political views if they don’t go along with the powers that be.”
Fanana Banana Art Censored at MiSA
Naji and Azzam, two Palestinian American artists featured in this exhibition, are the co-founders of Fanana Banana, an art group that supports Muslim and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) artists in Milwaukee.
The pair had an exhibition planned for this summer, “In the Shadows of Palestine,” at Mitchell Street Arts (MiSA) as a part of their artist residency. Azzam said that everything was all planned out and going well. Then, two weeks before the show was set to open, the artists felt pressure to self-censor their work from the co-executive directors, who were worried about losing funding. Azzam and Naji asked if it was because the show centered around Palestine, and they said yes.
“It wasn’t enough for me to say, ‘OK, let’s cancel it,’” Azzam said.
Naji and Azzam told MiSA they needed some time to think about it and that they will get back to them. A few days passed and the artists were told that MiSA would in fact lose funding if the show continued.
“Again, it was like you are letting us know, but no decision has been made,” Azzam said. “They were still putting us in this corner of, ‘We need you guys to cancel the show.’”
Fanana Banana issued a public statement recounting their experience and timeline of the censorship of their art at MiSA, via a link that can be found in the art group’s Instagram bio.
“What was happening in Gaza, and is still happening to this day, as an American-born citizen, it suddenly felt like I was not someone from here,” Azzam said. “It felt like, you are American until you want to represent your people and humanity, then suddenly you don’t have your full freedom.”
Some of the work that was initially intended to be on display at MiSA will be featured in the upcoming exhibition at the Jazz Gallery Center of the Arts. Azzam’s art utilizes things she identifies with in her textile pieces, like the American Flag and a keffiyeh to display her identity and how U.S. politics are a reflection of how well people outside of the country live.
Susan Simensky Bietila Art Censored at St. Kate – The Arts Hotel
Susan Simensky Bietila, a well-known artist in the world of political cartoons, was one of the artists in the show “POW-litical Comics: From Ripon to the RNC” at Saint Kate – the Arts Hotel. Her featured piece, titled Big Sister is Watching You, is a satirical drawing that is one part of a larger comic strip. The piece is about mom groups that are for book censorship. The exhibition was scheduled to run from April 12 to July 21, parallel to the Republican National Convention (RNC), hosted in Milwaukee from July 15-18.
“That’s why I was particularly excited about this show,” Bietila said. “Because it was my speaking truth to power.”
The show at Saint Kate’s was juried, so all the artwork was selected and approved by curators. When the art for this exhibition was initially hung, her piece was displayed as the first thing visitors would see when entering the gallery. When Bietila came back for the opening reception, she noticed her art had been moved to a less immediate eye-catching location of the gallery.
That same day, Bietila was introduced to one of the hotel owners and curators who informed her that her piece was going to be taken down. They were worried that it may cause upset that could lead to rioting from the visitors coming to town for the RNC, as many of them were staying in the hotel.
“The show was cartoons all about the Republican party,” Bietila said. “In no way was my piece more controversial than many of the pieces in the show.”
The curator offered to buy the piece and donate it to the Museum of Wisconsin Art, which she did. Bietila was then asked if she had another piece that could be substituted. She then provided her with a six-piece comic strip titled Don’t Be Conned by Foxconn for the show. A less “of the times” piece compared to Big Sister is Watching You.
On June 23, with no explanation to any of the artists, the show was shut down a month early. Bietila said that she was not surprised that the hotel would be pressured to shut the show down due to the RNC. “It had nothing to do with the quality of the art, it had to do with the content,” she said.
Seth Ter Haar Reflection of Self-Censorship
Haar also had art at Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel this summer for a solo show. As mentioned previously, hotel owners were concerned about how the art in their galleries would be perceived by RNC visitors. The story that Haar is telling through his artwork in the upcoming exhibition is about how willing he ended up being to change the subject matter of his artwork due to their concerns.
Haar is a 23-year-old gay man navigating the world of art outside of school one year after graduating from the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD).
“I was really excited about people at the RNC who were maybe closeted going into an art gallery and seeing my work that was about the abundance and the beauty that exists in a community of gay people,” Haar said.
As he reflected on this experience, Haar realized that he was very willing to get rid of the erotic aspects of his artwork in order to keep the show up and running. For the exhibition at the Jazz Gallery, in his piece, They made me sand my penis off (80 grit), Haar explores self-censorship and the pressure artists experience to surrender to the expectations of galleries and museums.
“I was so willing to change my work and that wasn’t true to me,” Haar said, “It was [self-censorship] something that I don’t know if I’ll do again or handle differently. It’s something that a lot of artists deal with.”
Haar heard word that quite a few Republicans went through and saw his exhibition about the queer community during the time of the RNC.
“That felt like a huge win for me, despite the turmoil of dealing with that show,” Haar said. “For the first time in my life, it almost felt like my target audience was being reached. I’m really interested in the idea of queer enlightenment.”
The Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts is free and open to the public Thursdays through Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. For more information about the upcoming exhibition, “Art on the Edge: Fear and Censorship in an Era of Political Turmoil,” visit their website.
