In Miami Beach, a new street art installation celebrates the city’s vibrant drag scene
The newest work of public art in Miami Beach, Florida, is an ode to drag. On Tuesday, city officials unveiled “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.
These quintessential elements in the art of drag come together as “a costume, a work outfit and a kind of armor in one,” said Persephone Von Lips, one of eleven queens who inspired the installation. “The hair, the makeup, the nails, the whole getup — when I put them on, I can walk down any street and feel the most beautiful and most confident I’ve ever been.”
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. The City of Miami Beach commissioned the piece as the latest installment of Elevate Española, a semi-annual public art project launched in 2021.
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.
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