IN PICTURES: ‘Hello, Welcome’ art show is ‘organized chaos at its finest’

Before Saturday night’s “Hello, Welcome” art exhibition, Ron The Killer and Edrok One posed for photos in front of their mural. Their yet-to-be-titled artwork was eventually christened with the moniker “Intestinal Oobleck.”

A sellout crowd of 800 streamed into The Icehouse Arts Complex as the evening wore on.

Edrok One was ebullient as the crowd flowed past his mural. “This show is about art from the heart of the artists. I think it was a relief for all of us to be able to put whatever the hell we wanted on these walls.”

This is the fourth, and by far the most successful, artist-organized exhibit of its kind in Long Beach. Josh Garcia, one of the main coordinators of the show, proclaimed the event to be unqualified success. The fifth floor of the Icehouse showcased 13 muralists, 25 group artist displays, five bands and a couple of DJs.

Mufasa Clarkson photographed his favorite mural.  Like several of the eclectic street art pieces at the show he termed it “organized chaos at its finest.”

Stewart Laidlaw, 66, and his wife Debbie read about the show in the Post and decided to take a drive from Bixby Knolls to check it out. The couple sat together in beach chairs and took in the swirl of art and artists around them. The former UCLA bioethics professor thought the show was fantastic.

Laidlaw surveyed his surroundings. “That all of these people were willing to climb five flights of stairs to take this in is an accomplishment in itself,” he joked.

Two hours after the doors opened the venue grew steamy. Electronica music hummed as art patrons photographed their favorite pieces. A woman from Italy compared the evening to a visit to the Guggenheim.

Edrok One surveyed the scene: “This is the kind of show that artists can put together when there are no rules. We could be as weird as we wanted. This feels good,” he said.

“This feels damn good!”