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Art show promises shock and ahhhh

Artists will expose a city long known for shuffleboard courts to friskier images.

By CRISTINA SILVA, Times Staff Writer
Published August 22, 2007

[AP photo] Naomi Wilzig, founder and owner of the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach, poses on a bed that sports a certain ... phallic flair.

Friday marks the opening night of the city's First Annual Erotic Art Show. The show will feature more than 100 works of art, many of which will portray full frontal nudity.

"Some of the pieces are pretty out there," said William Schramm, who will host the event at his antique store in the Grand Central District. "I told my clientele, 'If you are going to be offended, don't show up.' "

The show will be one of the first major exhibits to feature nudity in St. Petersburg in recent memory, said art leaders, who added they were surprised that the city would welcome anything that included nude works.

Other cities, including New York, Detroit, Seattle, Orlando and Sarasota, have hosted erotic art shows in recent years, but St. Petersburg has rarely shown its sexy side, critics said.

"It is important that they are doing this," said Naomi Wilzig, founder and owner of the World Erotic Art Museum in Miami Beach. "It is a step forward."

Wilzig originally pitched St. Petersburg as the location of her museum in 2003, but she nixed that idea after she said she got the cold shoulder from the local art community.

"The mentality is that erotic art is not a legitimate genre of art. Unfortunately people hear the word erotic, and they think porn," she said.

But Schramm, owner of Antiques 2061 on Central Avenue, said St. Petersburg's reputation as a conservative town no longer reflects reality.

"St. Petersburg is not a bunch of blue-hairs playing shuffleboard like the world seems to think it is," he said. "I mean, I live here. I don't play shuffleboard."

Schramm moved to St. Petersburg from Reno, Nev., six months ago and soon was approached by artists about doing a show featuring erotic works.

"At first I was concerned about what my clientele would say, but you want to know something? The most supportive people have been some of my most conservative customers," he said.

Among the five local artists who will display their work is Zuleika Gonzalez-Tierman, 32, a photographer who thought St. Petersburg was years away from being receptive to her photos until she was invited to be part of the erotic art show.

"I think with erotic art a lot of people come to gawk. They come to be shocked," she said. "I want for people to see the work and appreciate it as art."

[Last modified August 22, 2007, 02:15:46]