POW WOW Spreading a Mindset through Art
Spreading urban art all over the world is a goal for many urban art movements. The one we’d like to feature here is very close to our hearts. POW! WOW! is an urban art movement that originated in Honolulu, Hawaii and is organized by a global art network. Starting as an annual event, the POW! WOW! Hawaii festival has featured a huge roster and a broad range of top notch urban artists from all over the world. The collective of artists responsible for the festival have formed a global network, organizing street art events across the globe in other locations such as Taiwan, Long Beach, Israel, Singapore, Jamaica, Washington D.C., Guam, New Zealand, Germany among others. POW WOW
The 2016 POW! WOW! was busy in 7 different locations – starting off with the POW! WOW! Hawaii festival. Over a hundred artists, musicians, photographers and media partners got together to celebrate mutual creativity. The festival began on the 6th with the Opening Block Party presented by POW! WOW! and Night Market. The following days were packed with showcases, exhibitions, 1-2-1 talks and of course a lot of mural-painting action. Artists like Risk, Pantone, 1010 and Bicicleta Sem Freio were spreading their creative energy all over Kaka’ako, further contributing to the growing mural scene. This year the festival was closed off with a new climax: the “stranded in paradise” concert on Saturday, February 13th, which featured The Green, DJ Babu and Rakaa Iriscience of Dilated Peoples, Cipha Sounds and many more. In March, a collaboration was formed which led POW! WOW! to the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas. This combination of music and urban art has always fueled POW! WOW! in the past. Quite a few local artists were thrown into a mix of visiting artists, including Kamea Hadar, co-founder of POW WOW!
POW! WOW! DC, led by local artist Kelly Towels, got busy the end of May. Artists flew in from as far as Hong Kong (Caratoes). Other international artists included Jef Gress, INSA and the Yok, but also some local artists such as No Kings Collective, Decoy and Matt Corrado spread some urban love. The majority of the murals created during these few days were on walls in the NoMA neighborhood, in the interests of the partnership between POW! WOW! DC and the NoMA Business Improvement District. The second round for POW! WOW! Long Beach started in mid-July and turned out to be a smashing success as the week progressed. Life-size murals, art installations, a week of exhibitions, screenings, and talks were the fruits of the labors of over 30 artists who traveled from near and far. The line-up included Martha Cooper, Bumblebee, KASHINK, Aaron De La Cruz, Lisboan Pantonio and so many more.
The New Contemporary Movement has a slightly different artistic objective, which POW! WOW! sees great value in supporting. The POW! WOW! Antelope Valley 2016 consisted of an exhibition with an incredible roster of over 55 artists. The exhibition titled ‘The New Vanguard’ highlights the imaginative breadth of these New Contemporary artists including David Flores, Scott Listfield, Aaron Li-Hill, Casey Weldon just to name a few. ‘One city district at a time’ is the motto with which POW! WOW! took on the downtown area of Worcester, Massachusetts. Dozens of artists left their mark, including Askew, Greg Mike, Imagine and Scott Boilard.
In October, POW! WOW! invaded Japan for the second time, but this year, in the city of Kobe. The events within the festival ranged from murals to skate exhibition showcases, with educational talks and more. The festival was host to artists such as Persue, Sam Rodriguez, Cinta Vidal, Kami and Sasu of Hitotzuki. This year’s emphasis focused on education, with workshops for kids led by renowned artists. Summing up this incredible amount of output which POW! WOW! has generated over the past year, we are so happy to say that we’re on board with these guys. In further support of these years events, our Montana team decided to dedicate two special limited edition cans to two of POW! WOW!’s main events, as a symbol of the outstanding teamwork between POW! WOW! and Montana Cans. The POW! WOW! Hawaii can from our color range of Montana BLACK and the POW! WOW! Long Beach can from our Montana GOLD range.
When it came to choosing a color for the POW! WOW! Hawaii can, we stuck to the colors of the festival’s logo and picked our Montana BLACK color BLK 4040 Pimp Violet. The design of the can is minimalistic, yet effective, sporting the POW! WOW! logo in white on the Pimp Violet base. For the Long Beach can, we chose a sunny color from our Montana GOLD range: G2030 Blast Orange. This can’s design is similar to the minimalistic design for the previous POW! WOW! Hawaii can: the white POW! WOW! logo on the Blast Orange base. A few lucky artists who participated in the respective festivals were supplied with these special edition cans and a select amount was also available for purchase, making them real collectors’ items. We are proud to be a partner of POW! WOW! and to support this fantastic network in our mutual endeavor to spread the love for culture, music and especially urban art.
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Photos by Brandon Shigeta, Selina Miles