Piss Christ

[8] Serrano has not ascribed overtly political content to Piss Christ and related artworks, stressing their ambiguity.

He has also said that while this work is not intended to denounce religion, it alludes to the recent trend of commercializing or cheapening Christian icons in contemporary culture.

"[10] The art critic Lucy R. Lippard has presented a constructive case for the formal value of Serrano's Piss Christ, which she characterizes as mysterious and beautiful.

[13] The piece later caused a scandal when it was exhibited in 1989, with detractors, including United States Senators Al D'Amato and Jesse Helms, outraged that Serrano received $15,000 for the work, and $5,000 in 1986[14] from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts.

[18] Sister Wendy Beckett, an art historian and Catholic nun, stated in a television interview with Bill Moyers that she regarded the work as not blasphemous but a statement on "what we are doing to Christ.

[21] NGV Director Timothy Potts cancelled the show, allegedly out of concern for a Rembrandt exhibition that was also on display at the time.

The British TV documentary Damned in the U.S.A., first shown by Channel 4 in its Without Walls arts series in 1991, explored the controversy surrounding Piss Christ, and interviewed Serrano about the work.

Beginning September 27, 2012, Piss Christ was on display at the Edward Tyler Nahem gallery in New York, at the Serrano show Body and Spirit.

[24] Religious groups and some lawmakers called for President Barack Obama to denounce the artwork, comparing it to the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims that the White House had condemned earlier that month.

On June 23, 2023, Andres Serrano was included among a group of artists invited to meet with Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel as part of an effort to "broaden out the engagement of the church with artists" and to proclaim the church's commitment to supporting art that serves "to waken us up, call us to a new alertness and a new consciousness" about issues of social justice.