{"id":710,"date":"2018-06-20T10:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/?p=67267"},"modified":"2018-06-20T10:00:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T17:00:53","slug":"your-complete-guide-to-pow-wow-long-beach-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/art\/your-complete-guide-to-pow-wow-long-beach-2018","title":{"rendered":"Your complete guide to POW! WOW! Long Beach 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo by Brian Addison. Photos and artwork below courtesy of each artist.<\/em><\/p>\n

Let’s be honest: POW! WOW! Long Beach changed the city’s art scene, turning the city\u2014at least in my view\u2014into one of SoCal\u2019s finest outdoor museums<\/a>, etching names like James Jean, Tristan Eaton, Nychos, Cryptic, and more into the annals of Long Beach art history. And on walls. For the public to explore.<\/p>\n

2018 is no exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cPOW! WOW! Long Beach brings such great energy to our community,\u201d said Steve Goodling, president and CEO of Long Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. \u201cThere is so much creativity and diversity in the artists and their work. Visitors not only get to meet the artists, they get to see the art being created right before their eyes, creating a vibe that enhances our city and showcases Long Beach as a great destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story of POW! WOW! begins in the warehouse-filled Kaka\u2019ako district of Honolulu, a young Jasper Wong saw an incredible opportunity to create a spectacle that harkened more to the power of humans rather than the excessiveness of human partying.<\/p>\n

Coachella he was not seeking. EDC? Absolutely not. He was creating what would soon become a phenomenon that the art world could not ignore. This is POW! WOW!\u2014and last year, the famed art collective made its first stamp on Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Eschewing hipster antics\u2014those popularity-contest-driven events where the partying is slowly eclipsing the art\u2014Wong wanted to bring together his beyond cool friends as \u201can excuse to make an area better with art.\u201d<\/p>\n

We are talking talented street artists who are beyond respected in their own right, from James Jean to Ekundayo, Wu Yue to Will Barras.<\/p>\n

The result of his \u201cexcuse\u201d? Massive mural after mural that has now created a public, outdoor collection of the some of the world\u2019s finest street art, with some walls often altering year after year. Last year\u2019s POW! WOW! in Hawaii? It brought over 100 artists from the U.K., Germany, Egypt, Israel, Mexico, Lithuania, and the States.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, every time, we tell ourselves that we are gonna scale it a bit back\u2014y\u2019know, it\u2019s not easy managing all these artists taking on all these massive walls,\u201c Wong said. \u201cBut each year we grew substantially\u2014including to other cities [such as Taiwan, Singapore, and D.C.] has become a different kind of beast altogether.”<\/p>\n

The ultimate point of POW! WOW! is simple: create a global artist collective that seeks to alter the public landscape by providing the world\u2019s leading street artists the largest canvases possible\u2014the walls of buildings\u2014while bringing together creative spirits in a way that is otherwise not possible. It has additionally brought forward musicians, photographers, and videographers to bring their own artistic flair to the event as it has expanded over the years.<\/p>\n

POW! WOW! Long Beach Announces Artist Lineup, New Additions to Street Art Festival<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n