Currently, the whole of Miami Beach is swallowed up by ART BASEL the world’s largest Art Show with some of the best (and most expensive) art on view. As well as the main exhibition there are some 20 satellite shows ….. including our favorite ART GAYSEL.
Even the streets themselves become part of the event with some superb street art. The newest work of this isan ode to drag in the shape of “Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia,” a vibrant series of aluminum panels suspended over a block of the bustling Española Way shopping district. Each panel features a kaleidoscopic portrait inspired by local drag queens (including the four who inspired its title: Adora, Athena Dion, Fantasia Royale and Tiffany Fantasia), and is accompanied by a 30-foot-tall mural of dramatic manicures, doll-like eyelashes and full, pouty lips.
 |  |
“Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia” is a work by Assume Vivid Astro Focus, or AVAF, an artist collective known for its multidisciplinary installations and psychedelic explosions of color. Eli Sudbrack, the Brazilian artist who founded AVAF in New York some 20 years ago, wanted to pay tribute to Miami Beach’s bustling drag scene. He was motivated in large part by a law that Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis signed in April, which sought to limit drag performances in the state.
Named the “Protection of Children Act” by its sponsors, the law threatened venues that admitted children into “adult live performances” — a phrase widely understood to mean drag — with fines, misdemeanor charges or revoked liquor licenses. In June, a district judge temporarily blocked the law on grounds that it would “suppress the speech of drag queen performers,” and the US Supreme Court declined the state’s request for a partial stay in November. Still, attorneys for the DeSantis administration are seeking to overturn the law’s temporary block in federal appeals court.
Labels: “Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia, 2023, Art Basel, Eli Sudbrack, Espanola Way, Street Art, Tribute to Drag
