Painting the Town: D.C.’s Introduction to “New Brow” Art Hits a Wall
Shane Pomajambo with works by Trevor Young, left, and Jessica Van Brakle.
It’s an unfortunate pitfall of hosting hundreds of street artists: Chances are, some of them might be inclined to take their art to the streets. And so it was that "G40: The Summit" in Crystal City, an exhibit of "New Brow" art curated by the Art Whino gallery, found itself in the awkward position of having two of its participants hauled off to the hoosegow after they, perhaps channeling the spirit of G-20 protests before them, tagged the roof of Plaza Five, at 223 S. 23rd St.,where the exhibit was scheduled to open.
When Shane Pomajambo, the director of Art Whino, learned about the incident, he had the graffiti painted over immediately and ejected the artists, and their work, from the show.
Evlalio Alvarez III, 32, who goes by the handle Scotch, and Ryan Sanchez, 22, who goes by Jik, say they were invited to "G40" from San Antonio to paint a mural in the show, and they were the first artists to arrive. Given a key to the building, they saw the whole abandoned edifice as their canvas, and wanted to paint a tribute on the outside that would call attention to the show.
"There was never a yes or no on where we could or could not paint, and there was no contract," says Alvarez. "We explored the building because it was abandoned, and we went to the rooftop. We were going to do something in the spirit of the show that said 'G40.'"
The artists say they stopped painting when it began to snow. They slept in the building (they say they had prior permission, which Pomajambo denies)—and were awoken by the Arlington police on Monday, Feb. 1.
"They tagged numerous pieces of property with ‘JIK’ and ‘SCOTCH’ and were found sleeping on the property. And by numerous, I mean firmly over the $1,000 requirement for felony charges, including almost all the pillars supporting the roof, and the walls on the 6th floor," says Det. Crystal Nosal of the Arlington Police in an e-mail.
They were charged with felony destruction of property. They spent four days in jail in Arlington and have been assigned a public defender.
"I didn’t intend to do anything to hurt the show," says Sanchez.
Pomajambo declined to answer many questions about Alvarez and Sanchez and did not even want to provide the artists’ names.
"I don’t want to reward bad behavior," he says. "Just mentioning it," he says, "would be a disservice to the whole show."
This is not how Pomajambo saw "G40" kicking off. For a guy who’s been relentlessly positive in his pursuit to elevate the local arts scene, the largest curated local art event in recent memory is not just a way to bring together artists, musicians, performers, and community members—it’s an opportunity to harness and define a global movement.
You might know "New Brow" as lowbrow, DIY, pop surrealism, or street art. Decades ago, cartoonists and graffiti artists with no formal training or entry to the gallery system began to show in alternative spaces or simply wheatpaste their work on the streets until collectors and the press began to notice. Juxtapoz magazine, founded in 1994, chronicled the loose movement and the personalities within it. In 2004, the Cincinnati Museum of Art curated the traveling exhibition "Beautiful Losers," which brought mainstream validation and spawned a book and documentary film.
Pomajambo prefers the term "New Brow."
"Lowbrow has been used over and over again and it’s too broad. They’ve been doing lowbrow since the ’70s," he says. "New Brow plays up the whole lowbrow thing with a new generation."
These days, New Brow artists can find fame as easily as artists who begin their careers indoors. Street artists, especially, are closely followed by bloggers who post photos of their work as soon as it is discovered.
Shepard Fairey, one of the "Beautiful Losers" and more recently, the creator of the iconic Obama poster, may be the poster child of New Brow. Last year, his work joined the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. While there’s no one as acclaimed in "G40," some of the better-known artists in the show include Gaia, Casey Weldon, Molly Crabapple, b, and Reuben Rude. There’s also a famous last name from the canon of American art: Daisy Rockwell, granddaughter of Norman, who works under the alias Lapata and whose work will be displayed at an event on March 25.
Pomajambo has arranged the artists by their geographic origin, dividing them into four floors: D.C., New York, California, and the rest of the world, from Arizona to New Zealand. Grouping them this way, it’s easy to see that New Brow artists aren’t just punks. They can be formally trained fine artists with sophisticated, though unconventional, techniques. New York artist
JoKa, for example, creates richly detailed pointillist paintings using toothpicks as his only instrument. Puerto Rico’s Adrian Viajero Roman built an installation reminiscent of his grandmother’s house. Gaia is known for his intricate wheatpastes of animals and people, but for "G40," he decided to use spray paint for what Pomajambo says is the first time.
Pomajambo, naturally, wanted a strong presence from the District. Scott G. Brooks, Decoy, Ben Tolman, and Chris Bishop are showing at "G40." Pomajambo insisted the work at the show be affordable, to encourage visitors to collect pieces by emerging artists, like 18-year-old Nils Westergard, a stencil artist and senior at George Mason High School in Falls Church, who is displaying several pieces in the show.
But despite the show’s title and tagline, "Where arts and politics collide," there’s strangely little political art. Pomajambo says that the title came from the show’s location inside the Beltway, and the 40 artists who were originally assigned interior walls for murals. There’s overlap between some of the artists and works in "G40" and last year’s inauguration-timed "Manifest Hope," which had themes of health-care reform, workers’ rights, and the green economy.
It turned out that "G40"’s most significant collision of art and politics will occur today in an Arlington courthouse, where Sanchez and Alvarez will become another vignette in the longtime struggle between municipalities and the artists they go to great lengths, and costs, to prosecute—a cost that can exceed the amount of property that has been damaged. An arrest can bolster an artist’s work, too—Fairey’s arrest for defacing property in Boston last year made national news. In art, just as with celebrities, "bad" behavior is rewarded with publicity. Regarding their actions, Sanchez and Alvarez agree: They have no regrets.
For Pomajambo, it’s a trickier line to tread. Perhaps that’s why, when pressed on whether he’d given Sanchez and Alvarez permission to sleep inside the exhibition building, and whether he’d called the police, Pomajambo demurred, telling Arts Desk he would now speak through his lawyer. As of press time, Pomajambo’s counsel hasn’t called.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
2:58 pm
Shane is unrated in many ways for taking this on. With a little curating the show became memorable and avoids becoming the sad failure that has become Artomatic.
3:46 pm
its obvious pamajambo has hung these artists out to dry as soon as things got a little hot. i guess art whino is just trying to commodify street art for the nice white folks in NOVA and have to maintain their business edge, but bye-bye street cred. free scotch and jik!
4:12 pm
@low brow, indeed
the "pieces" scotch and jik painted on the top of the bldg looked like something thrown up by a drunken 7th grader. scotch indeed. shane didnt hang these guys out to dry. they hung themselves. and their claim of having permission is just a desperate attempt to not get any more time or fines. and if you had been to the opening you would know that the crowd was as diverse as it comes. so take the tired white nova argument elsewhere. as for the commodification of street art...something tells me no artist was forced to show their work so they can sell it. the location selection was more about space opportunity im guessing. so tired of ignorant comments. and no, i dont work for art whino.
11:57 pm
There was no reference to G40 in the tagging from the roof. No tribute. It was all tagging, self centered egocentric with no statement, it looked horrible and sad. Are these guys really so stupid to think its ok to tag the outside of a building graciously donated for a show?? This building is not empty, Scotch and Jik should know this since they spent so much time breaking and entering. So, Jik's quote is a blatent lie. There are still occupants AND ANY neighbors can see the tagging clearly. My bet is the neighbors called the police, as I heard Shane didn't even know the guys' real names when he did finally hear and try to locate them in the system.
I love graf when it is well done and this was HORRIBLE! They were drunk and high from all accounts. Sorry, Scotch and Jik, but that was whack and I can't lie to you.
Why are we focused on two guys who almost stopped the whole show? I saw their walls before they were covered, I was not impressed. Painting Shane as the bad guy is unproductive and a waste of energy. Get your game up and show your work, rather than trying to steal the limelight with some made up dramatic issue... Shane shouldn't have to comment, this shouldn't even be an issue. Scotch and Jik cost Art Whino a ton of money in extra security and made artist installation pretty miserable as artists had to be supervised for all the hours on site.
Arts writers are soo pressed to make some snarky story, that at the end of the day the artists are the ones who lose. The talented get over looked for the idiots...
Thanks for being typical, City Paper!! And no, I don't work for Art Whino either.
11:19 am
I went to the G40 building to go paint and saw the Jik and Scotch pieces. They were fill-ins painted upside down hanging off the edge of a 12-story building during the snow storm. Effin punk rock.
Shane has a history of misrepresenting facts to artists, not being upfront when he owes us money and even not paying a few folks for sold art for over a year. Shane is doing a lot of lying to cover his ass and now needs a lawyer to keep it all straight. Shane did give the Texas Boys permission to sleep in the building, he did help the police identify them so they could be arrested, he did obstruct while we worked to get them out of jail, he did provide prosecutors testimony during the trial, he did destroy their art work out of spite, and now he is holding their art and supplies ransom.
I'm glad this article calls out the fact that the "where art and politics collide" line was just a last-minute gimmick. In the words of Shane, “I don’t want to reward bad behavior.” Just mentioning Shane Pomajambo is a disservice to the whole street arts movement.
11:59 am
Shane has done right by me and other artists that take their work seriously. To read the above comment about how "punk rock" it was for Scotch and Jik to paint on the outside of the building is ridiculous. Shane has done things that probably NO gallery owner would do for artists that are not even represented by them. He saw these guys as friends that were in business together.
For example: Did anyone know Shane opened his home for Scotch and many others to stay there? Why would you disrespect someone that allowed you to stay in his home, where his wife and kids sleep? Maybe Shane did tell them they can stay in the building, TRUSTING they would RESPECT Shane enough to not over step the boundaries. Regardless how "punk rock" it was for them to do what they did, Shane risked himself and his business for these guys. Painting over there wall came out to be the best thing to do because Angry Woebots and Remi Mead painted over it...Scotch and Jik didn't even work on it with any pride. It was sloppy.
If you JUST want be a street artist STAY ON THE STREETS! If you want to become a RESPECTED street artist in various genres that can be trusted as a professional and business person, learn how to balance your passion for street art and the business side of it.
Scotch and Jik wanting to be a part of Art Whino exhibits is obviously them wanting to get their artwork out there on a serious level. For them to be respected as street artists, to exhibit with other artists that take their craft seriously. Why didn't FRAME or COPE or NACHO or Angry Woebots or Gaia paint on the roof or on the outside of the building? Why were Scotch and Jik the ONLY ones that "misunderstood".
So I'm basically saying ... this is about respect. You shouldn't talk $H!T about a person that has allowed Scotch, Jik and other artists into his home, trusted them with risking his business and has shown their work with Art Whino? Grow up! Doing your art is a passion not a past time. Your name is attached to everything you do with it, and if you have the balls to paint it on the outside of a building - have the balls to face the consequences when the heat is on. Art Whino is a business that has looked out for artists that are involved. But you can't expect Art Whino to take the blame for some dumb ass $H!T they did because they wanted to be "punk rock". If this were the streets and I were Shane, Scotch and Jik would have got their asses beat down for the disrespect he showed. So if Shane did all the things you claim, then they got off easy.