Artists hit the streets of Kakaako over the past week for Pow! Wow! Hawai‘i 2017, replacing last year’s murals with fresh imagery and works of art.
The annual street art festival brought together more than 40 artists, some from as far as the United Kingdom and France, for a weeklong celebration that culminated with a block party alongside the Honolulu Night Market on Saturday.
“The vibe has been just unbelievable,” said co-director Kamea Hadar. “We have a lot more female artists and more installation artists this year, so we’re really happy about that.”
This was the third Pow! Wow! Hawai‘i for Kevin Lyons of Brooklyn, N.Y., whose “Donuts and Rainbows” mural features his signature monsters having a party on the exterior wall of the Fisher Hawaii building facing Mother Waldron Park.
“It’s always Hawaii-inspired,” he said. “I don’t pretend (it’s) a heritage piece or anything. It’s just my feeling when I’m here.”
Across the park, on the U.S. Hybrid Building on Cooke Street, French artist Oak Oak composed a mural inspired by X-Men villain Magneto using a stencil technique.
The “Pow! Wow! Exploring the New Contemporary Movement” exhibit, which concluded Friday, at the Honolulu Museum of Art School featured close to 100 local and international artists curated by Los-Angeles gallery Thinkspace.
At the Honolulu Museum of Art, Spanish artist Cinta Vidal of Barcelona, known for her M.C. Escher-like merging of various perspectives, completed a piece called “Blow.” It is visible in the Luce Courtyard opposite the museum cafe.
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