Photo by Shawn Macomber
Audio By Carbonatix
Stepping through the doorway of the RC Cola Plant — a Miami graffiti mecca even by the standards of old-school run-and-gun Wynwood — is a for-real “through the looking glass” experience: Once you cross the threshold into this football field-sized, immersive gallery space curated by the contemporary art gallery Miami Art Society exclusively for III Points, you enter a kaleidoscopic, beguiling world of imaginative renderings. The overlapping beeps of rising and falling scissor lifts punctuate the hip-hop, electronica, and punk echoing off the walls, and the rat-a-tat-tat of dozens of artists shaking cans of spray paint pierce through the cacophony.
“You know, this is sacred ground,” Miami Art Society founder and lead curator J.P.S. Williams tells New Times. “Countless graffiti artists learned how to paint here — they’d break in, play, do the walls, hone their craft. This building looms very large in that culture. For me, as someone who has been participating in graffiti art for years, it is a huge honor to make this incredible space into a gallery, even if only for two weeks. Every time I step foot in here, I pinch myself and think, ‘Oh my God — is this really happening?’”
The artists on hand seem to appreciate both the levity and gravity of the moment: It is the first time RC Cola — which is owned by Mana Common and generously offered as part of an effort to “enhance the creative ecosystem” — will open its internal walls to the public for this exhibition of murals, installations, and portrait-based performance art, curated by Miami Art Society. The warehouse-shaped canvas, reinvented by more than 50 artists, will act as a synergistic visual art nexus between the RC 95 stage and an LED-festooned rave.
“The array of artists on-site is impressive,” artist Alex “Quake” Vahan says of the atmosphere. “Many are considered old-school now, some having painted this very neighborhood throughout the ’80s and ’90s, so the folklore is flowing. Other members are relatively new to the city and even the country.”
“I grew up seeing many of these familiar tags and muralists around Miami, and it’s inspiring to see so many of them still getting up,” adds Joshua “Baghead” Hall, who is also part of the exhibition. “It’s incredible to share space with local legends and the next generation of artists.”
The project features new work from seminal graffiti crew MSG & Friends, immersive multisensory installations such as Gothic Church, and “portrait experiences” by After Hours® Photoshoot. Different walls and sections are being developed by different crews, each with its own idiosyncratic vibe, approach, and energy. All are unified in an overarching purpose: to tell the story of Miami graffiti.
In many ways, the RC Cola exhibit is an extrapolation of what Miami Art Society was founded to accomplish, only on a larger scale — i.e., to democratize art and prioritize “community-focused, inclusive programming and showcase a diverse range of artistic genres, from street art to conceptual works.” The gallery hopscotched through locations across this ever-changing city, innovating along the way, and eventually catching the attention of III Points Co-founder David Sinopoli in 2021. The two organizations proved kindred spirits, and the scope and vision of the partnership and Williams’ curation have only grown.
Williams cites a line from a recent Tigre Sounds profile of the III Points cofounder as particularly resonant for him: “[III Points is] a love letter to Miami and an invitation to the world.” Williams adds: “The talent pool in Miami is as deep as it is incredible, and it seems to me the lineup this year is more local than it has ever been.”
For Miami Art Society, III Points marks the beginning of the art season. From here until Basel, it’s nonstop projects and exhibits. But it is III Points and activations like the one on RC Cola that set the tone. “What we do really does reverberate through our other activities,” Williams says. “People might not want to replicate our work here exactly, but they want to build experiences that match the energy and impact of what we’re doing here. And I love that.”
