By Charly SHELTON

Generally, when one thinks of a traveling art exhibit showing the works of one of the great masters, an agreed upon experience comes to mind: moving quietly through the museum space, taking in the works of art and learning about their maker. Another kind of exhibit has arisen in the last decade or so, dedicated more to immersing guests into the art by way of set pieces and photo backdrops that look great on Instagram, usually while learning a bit about the artist behind the photo op so the caption can seem worldly and educated. Each type of experience has its own benefits and restrictions, and each one is a good time. The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit that has just recently opened at the former site of Amoeba Records in Hollywood is neither a Van Gogh exhibition of paintings nor is it a photo op walk-through. It sits somewhere outside that realm – as much an art exhibit as is the Arclight Theaters next door.

The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit Los Angeles is a viral sensation that has traveled from Paris to Toronto, and is now open in Hollywood. Tickets sold out quickly before being replenished with the recent easing of COVID-19 protocols. One would imagine that waiting for the arrival of a traveling exhibit of Van Gogh’s paintings would afford viewers a chance to see an original painting that has … traveled with an exhibit. But what viewers experience instead is a massive floor-to-ceiling projection of a number of his works made animated. The irises bloom, the sunflowers wave in the breeze and the starry night flows from the Seine into the sky. It really is an impressive sight knowing the amount of work it must have taken a graphic designer to isolate all these elements and set them to a motion graphic. Talk about one of the great master artists of our time!

It is an incredible film and really whets viewers’ appetites for the exhibit they are about to see … and then you exit to a gift shop. That’s it; that’s the whole thing. There is no information, no progression – just a single big room and a smaller antechamber showing the same half hour video on all the walls.

The one space where guests can take a cool picture comes right at the entryway as they fall through picture frames into a painting, but beyond that there really isn’t much else to photograph that isn’t a projected screen. So it’s not an immersive exhibit that lets guests step into the space of the painting for Instagram photos nor is it an exhibition of famous traveling paintings – it doesn’t really fit with any of that. It is a room with a big screen showing a film about Vincent Van Gogh’s famous works that are still at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, a film that is expertly crafted but lives only on that screen. That sounds more like any movie theater in Hollywood come awards season than a museum. And for a ticket price of $50 to $99 for Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit LA, it would be cheaper to see whatever is being projected at the Cinerama Dome across the street (whenever it reopens).

For those interested in seeing the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit LA, tickets are still available at VanGoghLA.com. For those who keep expectations in check and enjoy it for what it is – a visually stunning short film – it’s a nice enough time.