Challenging their local censorship
New Art of Flesh collective in conservative Bakersfield prepares to showcase their sensual creations
THE ART OF FLESH FOUNDERS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): Alex Castañeda, Minami Marina, Ken Williams, and Jay-Ar Ignacio.
-
Bird Dog Arts Gallery
5701 Outlets At Tejon Pkwy,
Suite 440
Arvin, CA 93203Feb. 13 — Mar. 13, 2026
Two years ago, four artists met in a coffee shop in Bakersfield, Calif., and an idea sprouted: form a local artist collective to push against the predominantly conservative forces in their local art scene.
Thus Art of Flesh was created.
As with all good ideas, it was born out of necessity — and out of challenges they faced; out of a dream for a better, more welcoming community; and most of all, out of a reaction to censorship.
Censorship’s many faces
Alex Castañeda is a figurative painter and teacher who studied art in Mexico, Peru, and Los Angeles. His nude figures painted on skateboards were featured in the “Wall Street Journal.” But when he tried to showcase his work in a local art fair, he was asked to take it down by organizers.
Minami Marina has been painting her whole life, carrying a sketchbook with her wherever she went. Most of her life, she kept her artwork to herself, but when she began sharing it publicly, she was told her skeleton paintings — an important aspect of and connection to her culture — were death worship, violent, and encouraging self-harm.
In art school, Jay-Ar Ignacio was taught to “push it” when it comes to challenging himself and the art norms around us. But as a queer artist exploring gay culture and sexuality, he’s faced roadblocks to showcasing his work in traditional spaces, especially any works with phallic depictions.
Ken Williams turned to the wider online world to share his illustrations. But even in the more open Internet, it didn’t take long for him to run into shadow bans and removal on platforms like Instagram.
Anti-Censorship Interview
Check out the Art of Flesh crew as they discuss their collective and exhibition with the Bakersfield Underground Podcast.
Fighting censorship at a local level
Now the four founders are about to see their seed of an idea come to fruition with a month-long group exhibition at the local Bird Dog Arts gallery.
“Art of Flesh presents the nude through the creative lenses of 11 LOCAL artists,” Minami says. “The exhibition’s unprecedented nature is a bold step to opening Kern County up to a thought-provoking show about censorship in the art community.
“The town is growing and so are its peoples. It deserves to have a diverse creative industry established where art — no matter how expressive — can have a space to show. By doing this many other artists can stay to enrich Kern County’s already rich culture.”
“To me this show is a second coming out,” Jay-Ar says. “It’s a debut of my freedom and independent voice. The ultimate goal is for my community to finally come forward and see the power in artistic voices. Art is very powerful, it can make or break a majority belief. I hope my community is strong enough to be fearless at speaking freely.”
Finding the right art partner
It hasn’t been an easy road. Finding a venue willing to showcase figurative art was a real challenge.
They thought they had a perfect place when a new gallery offered to show their work in exchange for help in building the space. But after the group had invested several weekends of “sweat equity,” including cleaning, building faux walls, and painting a mural — in the summer heat and no air-conditioning — the gallery changed the terms, demanding that the art be “tasteful” and asking the group to change its name.
“The final straw was finding out our free labor amounted to ‘maybe showing,’ pending their board approval at the gallery,” Minami says. “Exploitation and censorship at its finest.”
The group eventually found Bird Dog Arts, which has been a completely different, positive experience.
“While the gallery’s staff — especially Wendy — have been generous collaborators, the curatorial vision remains ours: to present the unclothed human form as a vessel of unfiltered artistic expression, free of editorial interference,” Alex says.
In the end, despite all the challenges, there is a bonus to how everything turned out.
“We considered every month, and we thought February was perfect because it is the month of love,” Minami says. “Since our show is centered on eroticism, sensuality, love-making, and the beauty of nudity and the body positivity of it, February is the perfect time to showcase it.”
