It’s been nearly 20 years since a collective of artists in New Mexico started installing large-scale works like a 70-foot ship and a series of geodesic domes spreading unexpected art across Santa Fe. In 2016, Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin helped the group acquire an abandoned bowling alley in the city, transforming it into the first Meow Wolf permanent art installation.
Meow Wolf has become a phenomenon, an oasis for the unusual all over the country and the group is putting the finishing touches on their newest location here in Los Angeles. Meow Wolf Picture Palace, their latest art experiment, is on the verge of opening in Westchester and joins locations in Las Vegas, Denver, Houston and Dallas. The movie-themed experience took over one-third of the Cinemark multiplex at the Howard Hughes Center and has been gathering a collective of local artists to create the surreal environment.
On January 1, the world will get its first look at the L.A. story when a “maximalist microdose” of Meow Wolf rolls down Colorado Boulevard as part of the Tournament of Roses Parade. The 55-foot float, designed by the group, along with John Ramirez of Artistic Entertainment Services in Azusa, features a peek at their dream world and alien creatures, as they spill out of a refrigerator floating above.
“Our worlds are built for people to walk into and most of the country doesn’t have one nearby yet,” Meow Wolf CEO Matthew Henick said in a statement. “So on New Year’s Day, we’re taking one out for a drive. Where the refrigerator goes is for you to find out.” Three-quarters of a million lining the sidewalks and 25 million TV viewers will marvel at the glowing underwater Glowquarium and the alien botanical world of Numina while above them all rises the Bearret, a creature somewhere between a bear and a ferret.
The group’s psychedelic art environments have become irresistible draws for creative folks like Nancy Kruse, an artist and director at the Walt Disney Company who has visited several locations with friends. “They’re like magical unexpected worlds,” she says. “You know when you’re on the train at Disneyland one minute and then you go back in time and see dinosaurs? That’s not what you expect to happen. At Meow Wolf you go through an everyday object and are transported into another realm.”
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