ESCONDIDO -- In some ways, the naked truth about Escondido is that it has had an uneasy relationship with the idea of nudity.

Last year, one councilwoman pushed for the city to bar a group of nudists from holding their regular swimming event at the city's ice skating rink. And in January, a small brouhaha erupted when one of downtown's many galleries placed a portrait of a male nude in the window.

Now, the Escondido Arts Partnership, a publicly funded gallery, plans to launch its summer exhibit, "The Naked Truth," a collection of 44 paintings, sculptures and other pieces that show distorted newsprint, painted faces and, well, flesh.

Victoria Huckins, executive director of the partnership that put together the exhibit from more than 120 submissions from regional artists, said focusing solely on the images of naked individuals in "The Naked Truth" would miss the point of the exhibit.

"Art through the ages has had (the natural) form in it," Huckins said. "And it's not up to us to censor our artists."

Others in the city have had different ideas.

When Councilwoman Marie Waldron worked to ban Naturally California from the city's Iceoplex, the nudist group decided to stop holding its private events there.

Earlier this year, one local mother demanded that a gallery on Grand Avenue remove a nude portrait, which it did, only to replace it days later. The ensuing ruckus drew considerable media attention locally.

Huckins, whose gallery receives $76,000 from the city, or about 40 percent of the gallery's annual budget, said the partnership had come up with its theme last summer, well before the controversy.

"A lot of the submissions, almost half, did not use the literal figure (of nakedness)," Huckins said. "There are a lot of messages about society."

One figure features a wooden cutout of a plump, elderly woman staring into a mirror that reflects an image of a sultry, busty blonde in a Playboy bunny outfit.

Another work is a painted door with collages of multihued faces cut from fashion magazines pasted on the panels of one side, and portraits of indigenous people from around the world on the other.

Can you mail that?

The exhibit does face some practical challenges.

The first place winner in the jury selection was a piece entitled "Mysteries of Rebirth," a portrait painted in a range of pastels depicting a longhorn skull atop a crouched, clearly female figure with her hands clasped, as if in prayer.

Valley Center artist Raina Colvin said her piece is similar to a Sheela Na Gig, a traditional carving that adorns some Irish churches and whose origins are debated, although it's often said to represent a pagan symbol of fertility.

Huckins said she is working with Colvin on how to handle mailing the announcement postcards for the exhibit. Traditionally, they would feature the first-place work, but in this case, "Mysteries of Rebirth" might not pass muster with the U.S. Postal Service, which prohibits mailing images that may be deemed obscene.

To ensure there are no problems, Colvin said she agreed to crop the figure for the mailing.

"I was really surprised when my piece even got accepted," Colvin 46, said. "That they were having a show about nudity. I was really surprised, because I always thought Escondido was kind of conservative."

Other artists said they didn't think so.

"Escondido has been much more welcoming of unusual, avant-garde art than most places," said Karen Langer Baker, a Fallbrook artist whose collage of images and poetic phrases depicting the fear of aging drew second place. "I'm quite happy to put things there that I couldn't put in Fallbrook."

Still, Baker and her husband, who created the door with faces on the panels, said that they also will understand if the partnership's exhibit keeps some of the edgier works away from the entryway.

Because the gallery is at street level, that might be a good idea, said Mayor Lori Pfeiler, adding that the partnership should be mindful not to hang any pieces in the window that would clearly make most people uncomfortable.

But neither, she said, should it worry about causing a stir in a city that has vehemently supported the arts, including staking much of its marketing of downtown on the 25 art galleries and studios that line the streets of quaint shops and restaurants.

"Art is thriving in Escondido," Pfeiler said. "And the best thing about art is that it gives us new ways to think, to challenge our minds and broaden our lives in a lot of ways."

"The Naked Truth" runs Aug. 10 through Sept. 6. at the Escondido Arts Partnership, 142 W. Grand Ave.

Contact staff writer David Fried at (760) 740-5416 or dfried@nctimes.com.