Imagine Van Gogh Vancouver: Interactive art exhibit

Imagine Van Gogh is a digital and interactive art exhibit featuring the famous painter, Van Gogh. The exhibition is accompanied by the music of the great composers Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Delibes and Satie.

I am not an art geek, but I do enjoy art galleries and exhibits from time to time. I was especially intrigued by Imagine Van Gogh after I finished a terrible Netflix series called Emily in Paris, where the main character attended an art gallery just like this one.

Prices

Ticket prices change depending on the date and time of your entry. We bought tickets for a Sunday at 1:45 pm and it costed $50 per adult before taxes and fees.

There are several rules, such as no re-entry. Once you enter the exhibit, you cannot re-enter so make sure you hit the washrooms before heading inside.

If you arrive later than your set entry time, you are only admitted following a “suitable” break. This is to maintain their covid-friendly numbers and rules. Masks are required the entire time you are there.

Imagine Van Gogh

After visiting the washrooms, we enter the exhibit. The first room is a series of hanging posters in the air where you can learn and educate yourself on the artist Van Gogh and his life.

I liked that this room provided more context to Van Gogh’s art. I mostly found his life to be quite depressing and sad as he didn’t seem to have much going on in his life except for his nice older brother and the asylum where he eventually ended up for being “crazy”.

When you enter the next room, you are in the main exhibit. The room is pretty big with giant screens and Van Gogh’s art is projected onto these screens. Some screens have a close up of the painting while others show the entire painting

It is a similar experience to Japan/Tokyo’s TeamLab art exhibit, except there is much less to see. Think of it as a powerpoint show you are watching. We entered this room near the end of the show, so the first painting we got to see was actually Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night.

You are not allowed to sit or touch anything so we ended up just standing there for maybe 20 minutes in order to watch the entire show and end back at Starry Night.

Final thoughts

I’m gonna have to say the experience was a bit lacking, especially compared to TeamLab. It might be because there is only 1 main exhibit room.

Some things I would’ve preferred/liked more:

• If the information room/context actually showed paintings as referenced in his biography. During the projection room, it’s hard to know which painting is which as there are no words/painting names displayed, just the painting itself.
• We entered the room right at the end of a show so we had to stay and rewatch everything. I kind of wish there were timed entries so we can start at the beginning of Van Gogh’s art career and see how it changes over time according to his biography
• Seats would have been nice since the floor has projection. Ceiling projections and being able to lie down while looking up at Starry Night would’ve been cool too

My other thoughts revolve more around art galleries in general. Some people think art galleries are a snobby/pompous type of activity. I can tell you that I knew only 1 thing about Van Gogh before entering the exhibit but I am still interested in learning more about him.

The funny thing is I generally wasn’t even that impressed by his art LOL. Maybe I am not “cultured” enough or it’s just not my taste. I felt like many of them could be painted by any one of my friends.

Anyways, if you are a big Van Gogh fan, I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing his paintings represented in a digital and interactive form. If you’re not, you may find your $50 best spend somewhere else.

Sincerely, Loewe