Editor’s note: On March 11, the Union-Tribune published an article online and in print (“During the pandemic, this San Diego artist discovered goddess power”) about an exhibit at Gallery 21 in Spanish Village Art Center. The gallery has since concluded that the paintings were not original work and has taken down the exhibit. The Union-Tribune has updated the original story with this report, which outlines how the situation came to be and what was done about it by Gallery 21, the Union-Tribune and the artists involved. The story’s original version appears in its entirety at the end of this article.
An exhibit at Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center has been taken down after the gallery discovered the paintings were not, as stipulated in its contract, original artwork, the gallery said.
Rosa Ruiz, the director of Gallery 21, said in a statement issued Tuesday: “It has recently come to light that the works in the Gallery 21 show ‘Gathering of the Goddesses’ are not truly originals by artist Jody Abssy as represented to us, but plagiarised (sic) copies from existing works. Gallery 21 and Spanish Village Art Center do not in any way condone plagiarism. This show has been immediately removed. The guest artist has been banned from participating in any G21 or SVAC shows in the future. We apologise (sic) for her frankly appalling behavior, and are formulating measures to more closely guard against this in the future.”
The statement is posted on Gallery 21’s doors in Spanish Village Art Center and was posted Tuesday on the social media platforms run by Gallery 21 and Spanish Village Art Center.
Ruiz said Tuesday that she and a representative of Spanish Village Art Center met with Abssy on Tuesday to inform her about the decision to take down the exhibit, which was scheduled to be on display through March 21.
The issue came to light after fans of artist Jo Jayson noticed similarities in paintings featured in the exhibit and pieces by Jayson, a New York-based artist known for painting goddesses as part of her “Goddess Chakra” series.
On Monday, Jayson ed the gallery and several staff at the Union-Tribune, which published a story on March 11 both online and on the cover of the Local section. The story, which included a photograph of Abssy inside Gallery 21, was written by columnist Karla Peterson, who spoke by phone to Abssy while the artist was greeting in-person visitors at Gallery 21.
In a statement emailed to the Union-Tribune on Wednesday, Jayson said: “I was appalled to witness the blatant and, quite frankly, crude plagiarism of my painting and many other artists’ works that Ms. Jody Abssy has recently showed to the public. No artist should disrespect another artist in this manner, not only by not asking permission to copy their work, or giving any credit to the artist’s original but instead ing off her paintings to her audience and the public as her own ‘inspiration’ and ‘creations.’
Jayson continued: “The seriousness of this violation of my own work has been relayed to Ms. Abssy, who has now apologized and thankfully taken her copy of my painting down from her website, and the exhibit has been terminated. … I am incredibly grateful to Gallery 21 and SVAC for their and swift and decisive action.”
On Tuesday, the Union-Tribune reached out by phone and email to Abssy, a local artist who was a longtime high-school art teacher. She said she would prefer not to offer a statement.
But late Friday afternoon, Abssy issued a statement, saying: “When it came to some of the 30-plus other goddesses, I did turn to iconic images that exist and incorporated them in my work in ways I felt were original. My intention was to honor these goddesses in ways that were known already. I had no intent to plagiarize defraud or misrepresent any other artist’s work as has been claimed.”
As a matter of transparency, the original online version of the article has been amended to include this report, but the March 11 article, in its entirety, appears below.
During the pandemic, this San Diego artist discovered goddess power
Artist Jody Abssy’s ‘Gather the Goddesses’ is on display in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center
By Karla Peterson
While many of us have spent the last year living in our small pandemic bubbles, not all bubbles are created equal. Some are accessorized with pets. Others sport sourdough starters. Some have morphed into indoor gyms. Or classrooms. Or crazy craft centers.
Then there is Jody Abssy’s home art studio, where she was alone, but never lonely. Because the goddesses were there.
During the pandemic, Abssy began painting large portraits of ancient female deities from around the world. By the time she wrapped things up late last month, Abssy had completed more than 30 portraits. Her pandemic project had become a real ion, and the feeling was mutual.
“Each of the goddesses has her own personality, so I always felt like there was someone out in my studio waiting for me,” the Kensington resident, 81, said during a recent phone interview. “Sometimes I would go to bed at night, and I would hear a voice saying, ‘You’re not going to leave my eye like that, are you?’ I felt like I had company out there.”
And now, the goddesses have come to Balboa Park.
Abssy’s “Gather the Goddesses” exhibition will be on display at the Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center through March 21. The exhibit — which features 30-plus large-scale portraits of ancient and contemporary goddesses — was inspired by an earlier Abssy painting of a group of 50 goddesses. When the pandemic hit, she decided to use the research she had done already and the time that was stretching before her to give these mythic women their artistic due.
“Doing that (first) painting made me think that I wanted more female energy in the world, and my way of doing that is through art,” said Abssy, who is a docent at the Mingei International Museum and an art teacher. “With COVID, I was stuck. I had no more meetings, no more docent-ing and no more teaching. I realized that with this pause in my life, this was the time to do it.”
The 24-by-36 acrylic paintings portray goddesses from a world of cultures captured in all of their mythic glory. There is the Celtic warrior goddess Andraste, wielding her shield under the watchful eyes of wild animals. There is a Mayan goddess paired with an Indigenous Mexican woman. There is the celestial Apsara from Buddhist and Hindu culture, the West African supreme deity Nana Buruku, and the Finnish forest goddess, Mielikki, who is pictured wearing an elk-antler crown with a great horned owl perched on top.
The goddesses who inspired Abssy are larger than life, but she sees their strengths reflected in women everywhere. That is part of their power, too.
“I really feel that a goddess has the same attributes that any woman has, but amplified,” Abssy said from Gallery 21, where she was fielding goddess-related questions from a steady stream of visitors.
“Maybe it’s courage. Maybe it’s erotic power. Maybe it’s mercy. That is why they appeal to me. The fact that they are revered and ed in festival days and in shrines, and that they are known in different cultures, that interested me. There is all of this energy in the world that isn’t always recognized to the extent that I thought it should be.”
Abssy’s goddess project also reflects a life filled with art, culture and a lot of travel.
A native of New York, Abssy earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Slavic Studies from Brown University. She also studied art. And after Abssy and her husband spent years traveling the globe for his job, the couple settled in Toronto and Abssy began a long career as a high-school art teacher. The couple moved to San Diego more than a decade ago.
As a teacher, Abssy had the joy of introducing her students to sculpting, drawing, painting and photography. She also had the privilege of learning how to listen to whatever her inner artist needed to say.
“Students just do art. They just do it. That is what I learned, particularly from the younger students,” said Abssy, whose works include sculptures; quilts, banners and rugs; portraits and abstract paintings; and murals. “We think so much, and we make all of these considerations about everything, but oftentimes, the art leads you, and you just have to let it do that.”
And so it is with the goddesses.
After guiding Abssy through a stressful time, these mythical women are still with her. When you have goddesses in your life, there is always plenty of magic to go around.
“When I was doing this, I learned how much it meant for me to have the opportunity to paint. And I’m still painting. Toward the end, I discovered that many cultures had moon goddesses. To me, the idea that the moon is a shy woman in many cultures is such a beautiful idea. So now I’m painting a variety of moon goddesses.
“Who knows? This may never end.”
Jody Abssy’s “Gather the Goddesses” is on display at Gallery 21 in Balboa Park’s Spanish Village Art Center through March 21. The gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. COVID precautions are in place. spanishvillageartcenter.com
