New Orleans artist arrested, accused of graffiti attack on Marigny neighborhood landmark

Two artists were arrested by New Orleans police Tuesday, accused of spraying graffiti on the old Frankie & Johnnie Furniture store, a Marigny landmark at Franklin and St. Claude avenues.

According to the NOPD, Josh Wingerter, 38, and Paco Lane, 55, were booked with “one count each of criminal damage to historic buildings or landmarks by defacing with graffiti,” according to an unnamed member of the NOPD Public Affairs Division. The men were jailed just before 2 p.m.

They face some serious penalties. Under Louisiana law, criminal damage to historic buildings can be punished with fines up to $1,000 or prison for up to two years.

Street art star

Wingerter became a street art star at the outset of the COVID quarantine. With the Frenchmen Street entertainment strip shut down, Wingerter created a series of aerosol paintings on the plywood protecting the windows of the nightclubs and restaurants.

He painted Louis Armstrong with a COVID mask stretched over the bell of his trumpet. He rendered Wonder Woman as a nurse, dispensing vaccinations. And he painted rolls of toilet paper as pop icons, the way Andy Warhol painted soup cans.

Wingerter’s Frenchmen Street suite became a popular destination in the era of social distancing. It was something to do, when there was practically nothing else to do.

At the time, Wingerter said he didn’t have “direct permission” from every Frenchmen Street business owner to paint on their properties. But “the owners I bumped into were cool about it,” he said.

Wingerter’s career accelerated thereafter. A West Bank native, Wingerter operates a gallery space on Sala Street in old Westwego, where he stages occasional block parties. One of those gatherings took place Saturday night. Wingerter, Lane and others collaborated on an installation that filled the interior of a small house.

Lane, who said he was from Washington, D.C., created an ultraviolet-lit, old-fashioned phone booth, with a wooden phone where visitors were encouraged to pose for selfies.

Wingerter produced a sculpture that included giant paper airplanes and tiny black birds on telephone wires.

Graffiti magnet

Zella May is a real estate agent and custodian of the former Frankie & Johnnie Furniture store, which was, at one time, a magnet for graffiti and street art murals. For the past three years, May said, she’s done her best to keep the rambling building whitewashed as the out-of-state owners attempt to find a buyer.

May said it costs between $1,000 and $5,000 every time she calls in a painter to blot out graffiti. In addition, she said, to allow graffiti to accumulate could put her at odds with city agencies. So on Tuesday, when a neighbor phoned to tell her that men were spraying graffiti on the place in broad daylight, she immediately called the cops.

“I’ve really stayed on top of that building,” May said, adding that if the artists had contacted her in advance with “a good idea” for a mural, maybe they could have agreed on something. “I don’t like to cause people trouble,” she said.

Graffiti or street art?

Carlos Detres, who owns the plant store across the street, has a nuanced view of aerosol painting.

He didn’t mind the tangle of chess pieces, anthropomorphic spray-paint cans, paper airplanes and children that had been painted on the side of the long-unoccupied, former furniture store.

“I wouldn’t consider those artists vandals,” he said.

On the other hand, he considers plain tagging, where the artist simply inscribes a stylized pseudonym,  unacceptable. Detres, whose business is coated from the sidewalk to the second-story eves with a professional mural depicting carnivorous plants, wouldn’t mind seeing something similar across the street. Until the huge building is put back in use, he’d like to see it become a canvas.

“If you’re not going to do anything with it,” he said, “at least turn it into a work of art.”

In August 2023, Mayor Latoya Cantrell announced a $500,000 graffiti abatement program, meant to stem some of the widespread illicit painting. Residents were encouraged to call 311, the city’s non-emergency help line to report graffiti.

Gabriella Killett contributed to this story.