Graffiti goes from street to museum in Miami

As Miami Art Week is in full swing, the Museum of Graffiti opens its doors in the heart of Wynwood, the city's street art district. The museum entirely dedicated to the history of this urban art will be inaugurated on Thursday, December 5.

Nestled near the famous Wynwood Walls, gardens housing art galleries and famous walls on which many street artists express themselves, the Museum of Graffiti was created on the initiative of the renowned curator and graffiti artist Alan Ket and the business woman Allison Freidin. " We want to show how graffiti has transformed some sleepy industrial districts into essential tourist destinations, explains the co-founder. And above all to pay homage to the graffiti artists who, despite the difficulties, persevered in this way thus allowing graffiti to become one of the most popular artistic movements of the second half of the 20th century ".

Comprising a permanent exhibition hall and two temporary hanging spaces, the Museum of Graffiti presents paintings, sculptures or interactive installations allowing visitors to travel through time and learn more about the development of this urban art. which took off on the streets of New York in the early 1970s.

" At the time, we were severely repressed because graffiti has long been considered vandalism ”recalls the Franco-American artist John Andrew Perello, better known as JonOne, one of the pioneers of this artistic movement. " Graffiti is for me a real freedom of expression which allows me to transmit happiness, energy and joie de vivre ”, underlines the adopted Parisian who welcomes the opening of the museum. " With our backs turned to us for a long time, it is a pride to see that the image of graffiti has moved in the right direction. It will also further democratize our art ".

JonOne will thus be represented in the Museum of Graffiti alongside other specialists in the discipline such as New Yorkers Sonic and Dondi White or the Miamean artists Abstrk and Rasterms. The inaugural exhibition entitled "Negative Space" will also highlight the works of the Dutchman Niels Shoe Meulman, specialist in calligraffiti, a form of art combining calligraphy, typography and graffiti.