Vincent van Gogh exhibit comes to Miami
MIAMI -- If you ever dreamed of stepping into a painting, your dream can come true at the "'Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience: exhibit currently on exhibition inside the Olympia Theater in downtown Miami.
"This is the bedroom (and) you can actually walk straight into the painting," said gallery host Amanda Lund. "You can sit on the bed. This is van Gogh's bedroom at his home in Arles."
The exhibit is literally a journey through the life and world of the renowned Dutch impressionist.
The exhibit is taking place at the Olympia Theater in downtown Miami Thursdays through Sundays now through Labor Day weekend.
"The idea is that we want to immerse our patrons when they come to experience van Gogh paintings in a way that kind of brings us into our current age of digital arts and technology and make everything as interactive as possible," Lund said.
From his famous sunflowers paintings to self-portraits and so much more, patrons will learn all about the artist, who sadly died by suicide when he was 36 yeas old.
Inside the large-scale room is his famous Starry Night piece, which comes to life in 360-degree views. He created it from memory while in a mental health facility.
"He was actually color blind," Lund said. "All of these vibrant colors that we're seeing in his artistry that he's so well known for (and) he couldn't even see it."
Guests can literally lie on the floor and see the Starry Night all around.
There are also direct quotes from van Gogh on the walls, which came from letters to his brother.
"He wrote about 100 letters to his brother Theo when he was away," Lund said. "He traveled a lot and he and his brother Theo were very, very close.".
The exhibit also features an area where both kids, students and adults can color in on stenciled papers of his work.
"You color your painting, and you can bring it right up to our post unit," Lund said. "You place your little picture in the box here, you press the button and it's going to pop up along these little frames on the walls that you see."
There's also a 10-minute virtual reality experience that teleports you into France and into the world van Gogh created. Just another highlight into this interactive exhibit that's meant to educate and entertain.
"You're not just going into a gallery looking at a painting on a wall, you're feeling it," van Gogh said. "You're experiencing it and you're completely immersed into van Gogh's paintings, his colors, how he saw the world, and the story of his life."
