Skate kids kick-pushing up and down the block; a photographer and his model posing against murals in hopes of achieving the quintessential urban fashion shot; two kids getting picked up by cops for graffiti bombing a wall -- Saturday was like any typical day in Wynwood. Except for the group of artists gathered at the Hangar, making hundreds of stickers, like a pack of wide-eyed kindergardeners during arts and crafts time.
STUCK Adhesive Show brought out some of the city's most influential and involved sticker artists to engage the community about a subculture of graffiti that Miami is well-known for, but few people actually understand.
See also:
- Wynwood's Sticker Culture Is Making Its Streets Unsafe
- STUCK Pop-Up Adhesive Show Wants You to Slap On a Sticker
Although the event was scheduled for 2 p.m., some artists began to show up an hour earlier, excited to make, trade, and put up stickers without the heat of being arrested for vandalism. Munchies were munched, hip hop was dropped, and thousands of stickers filled buckets, waiting to be claimed. Adjacent, artists scrawled out their tags on postals (standard USPS labels), showed off their sketchbooks to one another, and even took the opportunity to tag up the table they were working on.
"People come in and make stickers or come in with stickers in hand to trade in the buckets or you can put something on the wall. Writing on the table happened last event, so we just said whatever, we'll let them do it," Vivian Azalia, coordinator of STUCK and sticker artist, said of the happenings.
With a consistent flow of traffic, guests gravitated around the Hangar's front gallery but always managed to end up in the backroom, where the sticker magic happened. Although the small space was consistently full, limited seating at the work spaces didn't bother anyone. Guests pulled up drawing decks and sat on the floor to create, as conversation about the misunderstood art form came up.
Last week, New Times ran an opinion piece by Kerry McLaney, founder of 305 Creative Group, who argued that stickers covering the front of street signs in Wynwood are making the neighborhood unsafe. It didn't bode well with many of the artists participating at STUCK.
"This lady is bad-mouthing stickers, but how else are these artists going to get their artwork up in the streets so they can gain recognition from other Miami artists?" Mrs. USVSTHEBUFF, partner of USVSTHEBUFF, said in response to the article.
