Modern art fans are in a flap after a massive photo portrait of an artist’s vagina was banned by social media censors.

The five-foot-high image of former Playboy model Marisa Papen’s vulva created a huge buzz at Art Basel in Miami Art Week in Florida State, USA, last month.

Marisa, 31, and her partner and husband Michael Chichi created the intimate portrait called ‘Flower Of Life’ to encourage people to explore their emotions and life origins.

Photos taken at the launch show proud Marisa posing in front of the artwork wearing a headband and carrying a tote bag with other images of her vagina. It was also massively popular with the crowds as video footage shows.

But now Marisa has accused Instagram censors of banning the image from fans’ selfies on their platform.

She said: “Thousands of selfies were taken with the artwork over the course of the week.

“However, only a few hours after the opening, the gallery was informed that multiple people had posted their selfies on Instagram, and it was removed within minutes.

“There were also dozens of reports of accounts being banned for sharing an image of the artwork.”

She added: “Even though nudity in artwork is allowed according to Instagram’s community guidelines, the platform still banned the image.

“If not for the flawed algorithm, ’Flower of Life’ would have been the only viral artwork of Art Basel 2023.”

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Instagram has notoriously strict rules about nudity on its platform.

But far from being offended, Marisa claimed, exhibition goers were delighted by the artwork.

She said: “Literally everyone who encountered the work was struck by a deep recognition — whether one rolled the eyes, giggled, screamed or cried, no one passed by without showing raw emotion on their faces.”

Art activist Marisa and her 54-year-old photographer husband Michael, who together form the art duo Double Being, often create a stir with their full-frontal works.

But Marisa says even from her earlier days working as a Playboy model she always thought of her images as art not porn.

She told Newsflash: “My imagery and vision has always been inspired by the natural world — my body as my way of expression to integrate or create contrast.

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“It offered me a platform to engage with a huge audience that was beyond my own reach.”

But since becoming a full-time artist Marisa’s work means she’s often in trouble with police and politicians.

In Turkey there is an open arrest warrant for her after one nude photo shoot involving the Turkish flag and another snap saw her lift up her burkha at a museum.

She was jailed briefly in Egypt after posing naked at the Karnak Temple Complex near Luxor.

And she caused outrage in Israel when posing in front of Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall.

In Italy, she offended Christians when she posed naked with a giant crucifix at the Vatican.

She said: “For me, the biggest problem is with the institutions built around religion. They are driven by money and are soulless.”

Marisa added: “I really felt like a rebel then. Today, I feel more like a spokesperson for Mother Nature.

“It feel less like I’m fighting against society.

“Okay, what I do remains controversial, but it feels less offensive. I just want to create a new way of looking at our bodies.”

Other controversial works include the world’s first NFT of a vagina and the first-ever vagina on the cover of Playboy.

To get past US censors the image was hazed with 30,000 tiny flowers covering the folds of Marisa’s vulva.

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The banned image from Florida was shot by the couple at the home in Hawaii, says Marisa.

She said: “It is a declaration of our naked, natural truth — asking us to rethink our beliefs about our own existence.

“What does the vagina mean as a symbol? Why has she been hidden? Why was she expelled from the Garden of Eden and thus become the fear of religion?”

She added: “We rarely see vaginas in our current culture and media, and if we do, most likely it’s in the context of pornography.

“Having such a limited vulgarised relationship with the vagina is both disempowering and disingenuous.

“Seeing our bodies merely as lust objects disconnects us from ourselves and the natural world around us.

” ‘Flower of Life’ puts the vagina on public stage and opens the dialogue for a renewed understanding and acceptance of our body as a whole.”