howlin' for you
Interactive Houston art installation welcomes visitors with new murals
Striking new murals welcome visitors to Meow Wolf.
Houston's Meow Wolf installation is already one of the city's most immersive art experience, but now the party starts before visitors even enter the building. A series of new murals by local artists have gone up on the outside wall, and they're as wild as the action inside Radio Tave.
Houston artist and Meow Wolf artist liaison GONZO247 curated the project, and maintaining an H-Town identity was an important part of the process.
“This mural is Houston’s welcome mat to Meow Wolf,” he said in a statement. “Houston artists are shaping this space inside and out, and that was the intention from the beginning. We wanted to bring together a cohort of artists who could represent the city’s energy in different ways, so the very first thing people see is a collaboration that could only happen here.”
As Meow Wolf is housed in a former sheet metal factory in the Fifth Ward, the new pieces incorporate some of the industrial aspects of Houston culture. Artist Lee Washington added reflective chrome elements that glimmer in the bright Houston sun and form a sharp contrasts to the more biological aspects of the mural. Meanwhile, artist El Franco Lee II focused on music technology for his contribution.
“These murals are honoring and depicting Houston’s love for Riding Slab around the city listening to DJ Screw, on the way to the closest thing we have to Astroworld in the City: Radio Tave. Hence the title Headed 2 Radio Tave: Side A and B,” he said.
Artist Jasmine Zelaya adds some floral touches with an expansion of her Flower Face Vessel work from inside Meow Wolf. Ana María Ortiz (Ana Marietta) contributed a piece called Light, which features a human/deep sea fish hybrid figure that perfectly matches the strange atmosphere of Radio Tave, where visitors wander through a reality-bending radio station.
Since opening in 2024, Meow Wolf has drawn thousands of visitors to the interactive and immersive artistic experience. Part art gallery, part dive bar, and part sideshow attraction, it uses Houston talent to make the national Meow Wolf brand feel rooted in Bayou City culture. The mural is the the first major new addition to Meow Wolf since it opened.
“This mural signals that Meow Wolf Houston will never stand still,” said Aaron Johnson, general manager of Meow Wolf Houston.
