# Andres Serrano

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Andres Serrano," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/andres-serrano/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*American artist; in the 1980s the creator of Piss Christ, a beaker of urine containing an inverted crucifix, which so enraged President Ronald Reagan that he cut off funding to the National Endowment for the Arts. Per John Kiriakou, also the photographer of a torture-chamber series at Tate Modern, London, in which one panel is a photograph of Kiriakou next to a panel of a U.S. military torturer.*

- **Nationality:** American
- **Best known for:** Piss Christ (1980s)
- **Political consequence of Piss Christ:** President Reagan cut off NEA funding
- **Kiriakou-relevant work:** Torture-chamber photographic series at Tate Modern, London; one panel is Kiriakou's portrait, positioned next to a U.S. military torturer

**Andres Serrano** is the American artist best known for Piss Christ, the 1980s photograph of a beaker of urine containing an inverted crucifix. Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the work *"made Ronald Reagan so angry that he cut off funding to the [National Endowment for the Arts](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/national-endowment-for-democracy)."* Kiriakou's gloss: *"All it did was it made Andres even more famous."*[1][2]

## The Tate Modern torture series

Serrano subsequently photographed Kiriakou as one of a series of subjects in a project on torture chambers and torture around the world. Kiriakou's portrait is held in the permanent collection of Tate Modern, London. Per Kiriakou: *"It's in a series of pictures from torture chambers around the world, and it's in the Tate Modern. In London. Isn't that hilarious? And it's next to like this, a torturer from the US military."*[2][3][4]

## See also

- [Ai Weiwei](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ai-weiwei)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)
- [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation)

## Sources

1. Inside the CIA: Secrets That Send Chills Down Your Spine - CIA John Kiriakou (2026-05-25), at 01:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtqEYHyY3ms&t=100s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-covert-operations-insight-chills/
2. Inside the CIA: Secrets That Send Chills Down Your Spine - CIA John Kiriakou (2026-05-25), at 02:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtqEYHyY3ms&t=131s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-covert-operations-insight-chills/
3. Inside the CIA: Secrets That Send Chills Down Your Spine - CIA John Kiriakou (2026-05-25), at 02:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtqEYHyY3ms&t=164s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-covert-operations-insight-chills/
4. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 02:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=126s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/andres-serrano/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt