Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is now in Los Angeles, and it’s a multiroom exhibition that is part museum and part projection-mapping technology. For new and old fans of the historically tragic painter, they’ll embark on a journey as they learn about Vincent van Gogh’s life through traditional art and 360º digital art spread across an entire room from the floor to the walls. There are photo ops, a coloring station, a gift shop to bring home the memories, and the optional VR experience that lets you visit virtual locations that inspired Vincent van Gogh’s paintings.

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Ticket Information

For tickets to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, you can purchase them online at Fever.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience Tickets at Fever

Starting price is $17.90 for children and $29.90 for adults. There are discounted prices for seniors over 65, students (13 to 26), and those with disabilities. VIP tickets are available starting at $49.90 for adults and $37.90 for children, and it includes the VR experience.

Location and Parking

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is located in a large building in Montebello (1345 N Montebello Blvd, Montebello, CA 90640), the same one that currently has Dinos Alive Exhibit: An Immersive Experience and Bubble World: An Immersive Experience. You don’t need to worry about parking since the location has its own free parking lot, and there are plenty of spots (it used to be a Costco).

There are three exhibits happening at once, and there are lines with signs to help direct you. If you are lost, there should be an employee standing around to help direct you to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience Dates

The Immersive Experience is open to the public starting on Friday, July 14, and ends in September 2023. The hours for weekdays are 10 am – 8 pm (Closed on Tuesdays). Weekends & Holidays are 9 am – 9 pm.

Entrance

Once inside the building, it’ll be on your right, past Bubble World and Dinos Alive Exhibit. A huge mural can be seen to the right of the exhibit’s actual entrance, and it’s hard to miss. It’s inspired by Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” and his many Sunflower paintings.

Exploring Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience

The introductory rooms are where you learn about Van Gogh’s history including his life, friends and family. Here you can also read more about his famous painter friend Paul Gauguin and his three sisters Anna, Lies and Willemien. Gauguin was the friend who witnessed Van Gogh holding a razor in his hand, which resulted in the Van Gogh later cutting off his ear.

There’s a plaque that summarizes Van Gogh’s contributions including the number of paintings, drawings and sketches. This area is also where the exhibit mixes a few projection mapping pieces and traditional pieces.

A cool piece here is a bust of Van Gogh, with projection mapping encompassing his whole head. It’s very trippy with the colors changing, as if paint strokes are always active on the face.

There’s a small theater with just a bunch and a large screen that’s about 10 feet high. It showcases “The Starry Night,” which is still a painting that can be left to interpretation.

There’s also a gallery of reproduced Van Gogh paintings. These range from his sunflower paintings to exterior paintings such as “Cafe Terrace at Night,” “The Starry Night,” “Starry Night over the Rhône,” “Wheat Field with Cypresses” and many more.

Van Gogh and the Japanese Prints

Van Gogh was interested in Japanese prints, and there’s a showcase featuring his fascination with them. This piece is very abstract from the side, and once you look from the front, it’s still abstract. However, it starts to take shape in interesting ways as you walk closer to the front.

In the same room as the Japanese Prints artwork, guests can get creative by taking photos in the photo ops area. One is a life-size recreation of “Bedroom at Arles,” where you can pose by sitting on the chairs and/or bed. The other is a life-size recreation of “The Vestibule” during his stay at the Saint-Paul de Mausole Asylum.

First Immersive Room

The first immersive room has 360º digital art projection from the floor to all four walls. You can sit and relax here as you witness his artwork expanding across the room. This is just a teaser for the big final exhibit.

Second Immersive Room

This main piece is how Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience got its name. It’s a huge room that is two stories high. There are three parts to this room, with Part 1 emulating a virtual museum. In this phase, you’ll get to see his works inside a virtual museum. The second phase turns his immersive works into a complete environment, encapsulating the entire room. The third and final part is when things turn dark as it brings Van Gogh’s final years to life with fast imagery and heart-pumping sound, capturing his descent into madness and alcoholism.

Optional VR Experience

Once you’re finished with the final and epic two-story tall central projection area, you’ll get to try out the 10-minute virtual reality journey titled “A Day in the Life of the Artist.” There’s an additional cost for the VR experience, which is $5. It’s interesting to see some of the inspirations for Gogh’s paintings as you travel to the countryside or the city. With VR, you can look all around to see the beauty that the painter saw in the world, and it would pause in an area so that you can see the object or landscape that Gogh painted. This experience has motivated me to one day go on a trip to France.

Don’t expect high production values for the pre-rendered journey, and I did experience some stutters when looking around. Also, it was hard to hear the audio due to the low volume settings and not being able to use on-ear/over-ear headphones. The speakers are out in the open, and since you’re sitting down with miniature speakers with dozens of others around you, there will be background noise.

Coloring!

The coloring station includes crayons and your choice of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings turned into a coloring page. If you want more freedom, you can choose the blank paper to truly create from your imagination. Once you’re done coloring, you can scan the image, and it will be projected onto the screen on the wall.

There is also the gift ship at the very end of the exhibit that includes all types of merchandise. Additionally, a photographer can take a photo of you in front of a green screen. You can choose different Van Gogh backgrounds. (This one costs $10 each.)

In Conclusion

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience is an exhibit that really takes you into the mind of the tortured artist. Activities include viewing the reproduced paintings on display, posing in the photo ops area, coloring at the art stations, relaxing in the immersive rooms, buying at the gift shop and more. Tickets are available via Fever.

Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience Tickets on Fever