exhibit

Southern California is home to ocean treasures that rival those anywhere in the world, and the Aquarium Of the Pacific in Long Beach is celebrating  its 25^th anniversary this year with a new Southern California Gallery to be completed later this year.

The Southern California Gallery will feature over ten exhibits and more than three dozen species.  It will showcase underwater habitats like  towering kelp forests, colorful hydrocorals, swaying seagrass, and artificial and rocky reefs and abundance of sea life a like the California two-spot octopus, sharks, scorpionfish, eels and pipefish.

In related programming, visitors can take in a new short film projected in the Aquarium’s Great Hall next to a life-sized model of a blue whale throughout  the anniversary year. The film highlights  the Aquarium’s work in saving local species and habitats.

The Aquarium’s second floor will showcase the work of the top ten winners of the Aquarium’s 25^th Anniversary photo contest celebrating people’s connections to nature.  The first guest daily to find an octopus figurine hidden in a different exhibit will win a limited-edition commemorative pin. 

During the summer, the Aquarium’s First Wednesdays guest speaker series  will focus on the theme of connecting to nature and include music and a cocktail/social hour.

Finally, the Aquarium will launch its new podcast series and carry  new  commemorative anniversary merchandise in its gift store.

For more information and tickets, please visit https://www.aquariumofpacific.org

Immersive Van Gogh is an experiential celebration of the renowned post impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh at Lighthouse Artspace in the former Amoeba Music Building on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. 

The production uses approximately 65 state-of-the-art projectors to produce 500,000+ cubic feet of projections in 119,000 video to re-create the painter’s masterpieces.  The immersive  art, light, music evokes the painter’s emotional and chaotic inner consciousness, letting the audience literally step inside artist’s colors and  brushstrokes for a totally immersive experience of his iconic works, seeing them through an entirely new, magical perspective. 

Highlights of the hour-long walk-through installation include:

● Neon Starry Night Ceiling unifies the lobby and bar space.  Inspired by one of Van Gogh’s most beloved paintings, The Starry Night, it pays homage to the exterior of the iconic Amoeba

Music Building with intricate designs of neon lights for an electric rock vibe.

● Sunflower Bar, wrapped with thousands of sun flowers, provides an array of refreshments. It evokes one of Van Gogh’s most prominent subjects –  sunflowers – which he loved for their beauty, as well as his ability to get them them easily and inexpensively. 

● Absinthe Nook, exploring Van Gogh’s complicated and seductive relationship with

“the green fairy,” lets visitors step inside a fever dream based on the legend and lore of absinthe.

● The Letters from Vincent activation is an artificial intelligence program created

from the digital scans of over 1,000 letters Vincent van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.

Guests can ask Vincent a question and have him respond with a custom letter answer.

● Oversize Portrait, a reproduction of his famous self-portrait, lets you look deeper into his eyes,  and well as appreciate the nuances for a greater understanding of his exquisite brushstrokes. 

Since its North American premiere in July 2020, the exhibit has sold over 4.5 million tickets, making it one of the most popular attractions on the continent.

For more information and tickets, please visit https://www.vangoghla.com