Imagine if you could go to an art gallery and touch everything.
Meow Wolf is an artist collective specializing in surrealist art as a hands-on experience. We became enamoured with Meow Wolf two years ago when we visited their Las Vegas installation, Omegamart. It’s a trans-dimensional grocery store with portals to another world in the janitor’s closet and the drink fridge. We were blown away by the amount of work that went into it, and from that point vowed to visit every single Meow Wolf location.
There are currently three other Meow Wolf installations around the United States: Convergence Station in Denver, CO; The House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, NM; and The Real Unreal in Grapevine, TX. So we planned our road trip to hit each of these locations on our way down to Louisiana.
It’s difficult to put Meow Wolf into words, but I will try my best!
Convergence Station:
The largest installation at 95,000 square feet spanning multiple floors, Convergence Station is like Grand Central Station but for interdimensional travel.
The story of this installation is that 30 years ago, a cosmic event caused pieces of four worlds to literally collide and become Convergence. Labyrinthine corridors lead to glittering castles, seedy metropolitan streets, and ancient otherworldly civilizations in underground tunnels. With more being added all the time.
Convergence Station felt the most like an art gallery with its sheer size and scope. It’s stunning to look at, but we found the narrative hard to follow. It also dives directly into surrealist territory, whereas Omegamart had the veneer of being mundane until you looked closer.
It was definitely impressive, but I wish there had been a bit more guidance when we were there.
The House of Eternal Return:
The first-ever Meow Wolf installation in their home city of Santa Fe, The House of Eternal Return looks at first like an average suburban family home. Until you walk into the fridge or step through the fireplace.
Visual and environmental storytelling are the name of the game. Letting loose our inner snoops by opening drawers, reading mail, and rifling through every available corner in the house tells the story of the Selig family. A psychic self help guru/cult leader father who could travel to other worlds, until he lost his powers and enlisted his nephew’s help to get them back, only to have the young boy disappear into another dimension.
Meow Wolf installations have bits of connective tissue that bind them together story-wise, or even in the construction. For example, fridges are often doors to other universes — in House of Eternal Return’s case, Portals Bermuda. And the fireplace connects to crystal caves. There’s even an arcade!
We’ve learned that we particularly enjoy Meow Wolfs that seem normal at first and then get weirder and weirder the deeper you go. Where the mystery feels very real and immersive.
Fun fact: George RR Martin, author of Game of Thrones helped fund this Meow Wolf location!
The Real Unreal:
The newest location in the Meow Wolf pantheon, The Real Unreal is nestled in a mall just outside of Dallas.
In a very similar vein to House of Eternal Return, The Real Unreal takes place in a suburban family home, and a young boy has gone missing in another dimension in search of a cure for his friend’s illness.
It seems like a normal house at first, until you notice an octopus on the toilet, the passageways to the netherworld at the back of the bedroom closets, or when you open the washer and dryer to reveal a pair of slides.
And of course, the fridge is once again a door to the other side. In fact, one room in The Real Unreal is all fridge doors, most fanning out into other parts of the exhibit — except for one, lovingly dubbed the “Disco Door,” where if you open it you are greeted with flashing lights and disco music filling the room.
Meow Wolf is an incredible feat of artistry, with around 30+ creatives working together on any exhibit. With two more locations announced in Houston and Los Angeles, these fabulous weirdos will keep us coming back again and again.
Those meowolf places sound very cool. It appeals to me and I would l love to see them as well..someday lol what an adventure you could have broken this up into 3 articles. Looks like so much fun š„° I think i like the house ones that get wielder as you do down the rabbit hole too !