MIAMI — As Art Basel and its satellite fairs draw collectors and critics to South Florida, the Museum of Graffiti in Wynwood is highlighting a homegrown art form: graffiti and street art. Touting itself as the world’s first museum devoted solely to graffiti, the museum chronicles a movement that began on city streets and subway cars and later migrated into galleries and public commissions.
Founder and curator Alan Ket uses objects as well as paintings to tell that story. One early display features vintage Rust-Oleum spray cans, including a Cascade green from 1973; Ket notes how a single color had the power to transform a rusty train car into a striking piece of public art. Such cans have become collectible—some changing hands for around $1,000—and serve as physical markers of the tools and materials that launched the scene.
The museum, opened six years ago, traces graffiti’s rise from the 1960s and 1970s, when teenagers in New York began tagging their names on walls and transit cars. Among them is Jon Perello, better known as JonOne. Now 61 and based in France, JonOne has worked on everything from an Air France jet to a Hennessy cognac label, but he started nearly 50 years ago writing his name on buildings and subway trains. He has said he couldn’t afford paint early on and often took cans, calling those first supplies his initial “grant.”
JonOne remembers beginning in Washington Heights and progressively creating more elaborate pieces on subway cars, which he describes as “an open gallery”—mobile canvases seen by commuters and visitors across the city. That public exposure helped the work reach audiences beyond neighborhood corners, even as officials and many critics dismissed it as vandalism. Over time, many artists transitioned from trains and alleys to studios and formal exhibition spaces.
The museum’s current Origins exhibition focuses on a pivotal moment: the 1973 Razor Gallery show, the first New York gallery exhibition to feature these young writers. Ket regards that show as the catalyst that opened a viable path for street artists into the established art world. Since then, graffiti has spread internationally and attracted interest from galleries, luxury brands, and municipal projects. Artists once labeled vandals now command prices previously reserved for traditional fine art—names like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy have reached multimillion-dollar sales—and contemporary graffiti artists increasingly receive major commissions.
Ket notes that, despite growing visibility and market value, street art still lacks full institutional recognition: many major museums stage temporary shows but integrate fewer works into permanent collections. The Museum of Graffiti aims to document the movement’s roots and evolution and to preserve the artifacts and stories of its pioneers.
JonOne’s solo exhibition runs through June; the Origins show, tracing graffiti’s early days and featuring work tied to the 1973 Razor Gallery moment, remains on view through the end of the year.