5 cool things you'll see at Meow Wolf L.A. (like a fish-shaped spaceship)

Meow Wolf likes to say that its upcoming Los Angeles exhibition is focused on the art of storytelling — why it matters, what it means and how stories transform.“This exhibition is about the inevitability of change,” says creative director Elizabeth Jarrett, “and how the stories that we tell ourselves and others have the ability to affect the way we perceive change and the way we experience it.”That also means that Meow Wolf, known for its large-scale, explorable installations in Las Vegas, Denver, Houston, the Dallas suburbs and its home base of Santa Fe, N.M., will double down on its experiments with other media.Throughout the Los Angeles show, guests will encounter mixes of live action and animation, shadow boxes, games and even a mini escape room, only here guests have to break into rather than out of a secret room.

The Times spent two days in Santa Fe late last year to preview Meow Wolf’s Los Angeles exhibition, set to take over part of the Cinemark complex at Howard Hughes L.A.near the end of this year.

Here are five fast things to know about the experience.In Las Vegas, guests enter a trippy grocery store complete with parodies of household items before finding their way to the main exhibition space.

In Santa Fe, it’s a house with otherworldly goings-on.And in Los Angeles, attendees will first find themselves in a movie theater.

Travel & Experiences The Santa Fe, N.M.collective is transforming an old movie theater into a maximalist wonderland, complete with animated candy at a concession stand and seats that appear to be floating.

Co-founder and executive vice president Sean Di Ianni says the team is aiming for “sticky floor, popcorn vibes.” “It’s a ‘90s multiplex cinema, and we’re going to lean into that, to design the space to feel like that era of multiplex cinema,” Di Ianni says.As guests traverse the cinema at the start of the show, they will encounter a concession stand where candy has sprung to life.

In fact, one o...