‘Some Like It Hot’
History Miami Museum, FL 2014 
Curated by Brandon Opalka.

Street art mixes the familiar with the forbidden. By nature, it is ephemeral. The work — so often viewed as vandalism and surreptitiously created at night by artists on the run — once was viewed as a hybrid of hijinks and the desire to leave a legacy, similar to the American G.I. with his ubiquitous message of Kilroy Was Here.

Still, the genre comes with a venerable lineage that includes the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux in southwestern France, religious frescoes of the Renaissance and the social commentary of the Mexican muralists. The major difference is those works were approved. Until recently, modern graffiti was considered guerrilla art, with the artist choosing when and where and on what terms to make his or her statement.

Brandon Opalka, a 35-year-old who, as a teenager, ended up in an arts school rather than jail after he “got caught doing graffiti at Boca High,” curated the show. “It had to be inspired by Miami and the culture down here,” Opalka said. “We wanted to have a dialogue that would bring the city into the museum.”

“We’re proud to be the first Miami museum to present the work of these incredible local artists and the street art movement, both pieces of South Florida’s history,” says Stuart Chase, Museum Director and Chief Operating Officer. “Aside from a few pieces sitting in private collections, art of this kind has been conspicuously absent from museums in Miami until now.” Street art in Miami has exploded in popularity in recent years, with the Wynwood neighborhood becoming one of the area’s major attractions for both tourists and locals.