Courtesy Lenny Campello

F. Lennox "Lenny" Campello knew that his mixed-media work Sanctus Guevarus Castrum Canis — a drawing of Che Guevara wearing a halo, presented with a video showing a firing squad — would stir up some emotions in Miami. What Campello didn't expect was that a man would point a finger at him, and fire it like a gun. This was after a critic suggested that he remove the art from the Miami Art Fair because "someone would take a hammer to the work before the fair was over," according to a press release sent by the online gallery Campello owns, Alida Anderson Art Projects.

Campello, who was born in Cuba, had some explaining to do, because most of the riled-up viewers hadn't bothered to look beyond the halo. Campello isn't sanctifying Guevara — he's commenting on the way that so many other people sanctify him, "When in fact he was a brutal murderer," said Campello in the release. Campello had to explain to the viewers that the Latin title of the work roughly translates to "Saint Guevara, Castro's Dog." The piece had inspired similar sentiment at the Red Dot art fair, a satellite of Art Basel, in December, where Campello says a man tried to fight him when he saw the art.

"I learned the quick way to defuse the anger was to immediately turn the issue around and yell at the person: 'What's your problem? Are you a big fan of Che Guevara?'" says Campello in an e-mail. "That would cause them to pause and say something like (as an old guy responded a few days ago): 'No! That SOB shot my brother!' Then I would tell them that neither was I and then I would begin to explain the piece."

That did the trick for anyone who cared to listen — though the gun finger-pointer walked away before Campello had a chance to chat with him. The journalist who recommended that the piece be taken down was also assuaged, though he did not rescind his recommendation, because he knew the piece would be inflammatory, and that many people would not bother to learn its true meaning.

"I often received a hug and always a handshake at the end," says Campello, who blogged about his time in Miami on D.C. Art News. "The work has been wildly successful in that aspect. Next time I've got to get some video of the reactions."

The fair ended without hammers or injury to the piece, and even though it didn't sell, it got an offer to be in a show in Buenos Aires that Campello is considering. Campello returned to D.C. yesterday, where he continues his reign as one of the top mustaches of the D.C. art scene, as per TBD's the List.

Sanctus Guevarus Castrum Canis by Lenny Campello