The Sunflower & Poppy Gallery in Southampton Road

NOTE: Images of the artwork are included in this online article

THE artist behind phallic paintings which have been the “gossip” of Gospel Oak has welcomed the controversy surrounding her work.

The Sunflower & Poppy Gallery and framing shop in Southampton Road has recently mounted an exhibit of 16 small paintings by the Dutch artist Merel Ellen.

On first viewing, the paintings seem to depict clouds – but a more attentive observer will notice the presence of “male and female reproductive organs” in the work.

The gallery, which is based near St Dominic’s Catholic Church and the soon-to-close St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School, has caused something of a stir among passers-by.

“I saw clouds at first. It’s like subliminal messaging,” said Barbara Stronghold, who was in the area visiting her daughter.

“It’s next to a school. It’s not appropriate. Nowadays we’re overwhelmed with this problem. It’s bad for children: they are sexualised, they need to live their lives. Sex comes when it’s time. It’s a shame.”

A closer look at the images reveals they are not simply ‘clouds’

The front window display

Meanwhile, a customer at the neighbouring Pelushi’s Barbers said the images had caused gossip among his Grafton Terrace neighbours.

“They’ve got to be a bit mindful about how it’s coming across, especially because there’s a school next door. Every day there will be kids and parents walking past. I don’t think it’s very appropriate,” said Russell, who asked the New Journal to withhold his surname. “

If it was inside, elsewhere rather than in the window, it would have been much more appropriate. I wouldn’t call it art.”

But Talulah Till, who walks past the gallery every day on her way to the bus stop, said: “It looks nice, it’s bright, it’s cheerful. It brightens up the street.”

Speaking to the New Journal from her studio in northern France, Ms Ellen said: “ I think it’s wonderful that it’s something that gets people talking. I’m very curious [about] what everyone is saying. To the artist, usually people are very polite.”

She added: “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to look at it – and you could also walk past it and not realise what it is.

“The exhibition is made up of two series: God is Coming and Bodies of Shame. The latter are very simple red drawings on a white background, and they’re little figures which seem to be made up of both male and female reproductive organs.”

She added: “Why is this still so covered in shame, and can’t we even have a light laugh about it?” She said the works are an “invitation” to consider why “there’s so much shame around our reproductive organs and the act of sex.”

Artist Merel Ellen, pictured below, says British people are ‘prudish’

Ms Ellen added that feelings of shame are “limiting our enjoyment of life in all kinds of ways [and] our enjoyment of our bodies”. She said those looking at the images were “responsible for what they saw”, adding: “You could also see it as something else if you wanted to… It’s not a photograph, which you can’t deny. It’s about your own imagination.

“I don’t think it would have been such a scandal here in France. The Brits are very prudish.”

The exhibit will be on until display until October, with paintings on sale for £100 each.

A spokesperson for the gallery said: “We don’t court controversy. We live in the modern era – I can think of despicable things which we could have put in the window.”