Around 2020, as the world entered lockdown, Embtto decided to revisit to something they’d put on pause for more than a decade: art. “I just felt this need to scratch a bit of an itch,” they told me.

Returning to their art tools, they imagined scenes of cities and landscapes exploding with highly saturated colors—pastel pinks and lilacs, vivid golds—against dreamy blue skies. They added digital manipulations, marrying a sense of violence with the thrill of these open spaces. The feeling they hoped to capture, they said, was, “how good is it going to feel to get back out into the world?”

In a few months, Embtto had a series of works, titled “When Does a War End,” that they put up for sale online, eager to embark on a new, creative chapter.

Instead, the strangest thing happened.

Early in 2023, they got wind that their artistic endeavor had somehow become connected with Pax Jolie-Pitt, the now 20-year-old son of Hollywood stars Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (who is now recovering from a nasty e-bike accident). Jolie-Pitt, it was reported, was creating art using the moniker Embtto and had even lined up a gallery show in Tel Aviv. How this notion came to be is unclear: Embtto only recalls first hearing of it from a Vanity Fair article (since updated), which itself was based on reporting by Page Six that trumpeted, “Pax Jolie-Pitt becoming an artist under pseudonym.”

Pax Jolie-Pitt and Angelina Jolie in New York City, 2023. Photo: DAMEBK/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images.

Embtto’s reaction, naturally, was a jumble. They attempted to figure out the source of the error by retracing the timeline of events. They panicked, thinking they’d unknowingly copied and used Jolie-Pitt’s pseudonym. And then there was the unshakeable shame, feeling like they’d erred in some way that impacted someone else.

“I thought I really messed up,” they said. “I just thought I’d done something huge, and someone’s going to come to my door and start knocking on it.”

That knock didn’t arrive, but the messages did. According to Embtto, they received a flood of DMs and emails (some of which they shared with me) that were variously encouraging, supportive, and mean. Some sympathized with how the mix-up might be affecting them, some wanted to buy or exhibit their art (which added to the shame, they said), and others were just snidely telling them to put their mom on.

On Reddit, the actual location of their studio was leaked in a comment; on TikTok, a post asking, “Will the real Embtto Lowmani please stand up?” garnered hundreds of thousands of likes. (Embtto has since dropped “Lowmani” from their moniker; it was an anagram of “Manilow,” their favorite singer.)

At this point, any enterprising artist would perhaps exploit the free publicity, using it to burnish their profile or boost their work. Not Embtto. Six months after the attention hit, they deleted their social media accounts, went offline, and entered, ironically, a form of lockdown.

“I always say the one goal in life is to not end up on television,” they said. “If you can avoid being on TV, that’s probably a big thing.”

If it’s not yet clear, Embtto is not Pax Jolie-Pitt. They attended Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland, where their primary interests were in woodworking and sculpture. When I reached them over the phone, they were calling from a northern city in the U.K. They hold down a corporate job when not creating art and insist on keeping their private and public lives separate—hence the pseudonym, which references their initials.

So, why speak out now? Quite simply, after some 18 months of “chewing on it and sitting on it,” Embtto is ready to set the record straight. They’re looking for neither a splashy relaunch nor imminent fame, only to resume the creative path they were derailed from.

“I just want to do what I do and push forward. I figured the way to do it is just hit reset. I don’t want to come off like I have a chip on my shoulder. It’s all coming from the positive place and pushing towards a positive place,” they said.

More notably, they added: “I’m feeling that because I’m making art again.”

An artwork from Embtto’s new series. Courtesy of the artist.

Embtto has a new series of works in the offing—one that mirrors the first in capturing the feeling of re-emergence after a long isolation. “What does a new start look like? How does that vibrancy manifest?” were some questions that they sought to explore with color and texture. “It’s weirdly familiar ground.”

Today, they’re clear-eyed about the overwhelming—and unwelcome—attention they received, calling it the “perfect storm of modern stuff” that happened to someone who is “not very modern myself.” Their sensitivity also extends to Jolie-Pitt, with whom they were unwittingly entwined.

“I feel like there’s another person in the story who’s probably got a lot more shit than I’ve got,” they said. “I’d never heard of the guy, but it definitely made me think about him in very emotional, human ways.”

As for the name that keeps them linked in some way to Jolie-Pitt? They’re hanging on to it, if only to reclaim it.

“If I change my name and just crack on with that, would I feel better about it? I have no idea,” they said. “I want to keep the name. It’s about taking small steps, building up and earning it. I just want to inch my way back into the world in that direction.”