PUMP ME UP

Pump Me Up: D.C. Subculture of the 1980s was the first exhibition to explore the thriving underground of Washington, D.C., during the 1980s, giving visual form to the raucous energy of graffiti, Go-Go music, and a world-renowned punk and hardcore scene. The exhibit explored the visual culture of the “other D.C.,” demonstrating its place in the history of street art as well as that of America’s capital city. Ephemera, photos, flyers, posters, records, newspaper clippings, stage clothes, instruments, video loops, and much more, all made largely between 1980 and 1992, brought the era to life. The exhibition included sections on graffiti writers, the D.C. punk, hardcore, and Go-Go scenes, concert posters made by the Baltimore-based Globe Poster Printing Corporation, and visual culture from the drug wars. Exhibiting February 23rd - April 7, 2013 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the show attendance was double than any previous exhibit in the last ten years at the Corcoran, broke record sales in their bookstore, and every event sold out. Roger Gastman developed, produced, and curated the exhibit, along with a 320 plus-page book/catalog of the same title, featuring interviews and essays that expanded the story in print. The exhibit and events were widely covered by local and national press, including a variety of newspapers, print magazines, TV, radio, and on the web.