Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit Denver

Last night I was lucky enough to get a chance to take a sneak peek at the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit in Denver which opens to the public tomorrow, September 30th. 

I've been seeing this exhibition pop up all over my social media for months now as friends have checked it out for themselves in various cities across the country, and I've been super excited for it to open up here in Denver. If you've seen it on social media too (which I'm sure you probably have by now), let me just say that it's even better in real life! I knew it was going to be amazing, but I had no idea just how magical it would feel being in the room with all the paintings coming to life around me as classical music played. I really felt like I was transported to another place and time. 

If you're not familiar with the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit, be prepared to wowed! This exhibit features 500,000 cubic feet of projections of Vincent Van Gogh's famous paintings including Starry Night, Sunflowers, Bedroom in Arles and The Potato Eaters. The projections come to life on the walls, the floor, and various mirrored sculptures throughout the exhibit. The sculptures add a little extra magic to the experience with the projected images appearing on the mirrored surfaces from all angles. 

Let's take a look...

Denver Art Museum

Summers in Colorado can be pretty harsh, so when we're not travelling we tend to spend an awful lot of time at home hibernating from the heat. It's not my favorite way to spend this big break that the kids get (although I'm sure the kids love all the extra time playing Minecraft) so I'm always on the look out for places to visit indoors. Recently I visited Denver Art Museum for the first time and it was the perfect place to escape the heat for a few hours. 

If you've been to Denver you'll likely be familiar with the Denver Art Museum whether you've actually been inside the building or not. The building itself is a work of art! Located in a prime position in Denver's Golden Triangle neighborhood, the Denver Art Museum is known for it striking architecture with sharp geometric shapes reminiscent of a crystal formation. Or at least that's what it reminds me of! The art also spills out of the building in the form of sculptures including the large dustpan and broom sculpture near the front entrance. 
 

During my visit I checked out three temporary exhibitions including "Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger", Simphiwe Ndzube: Oracles of the Pink Universe", and "Paris to Hollywood: The Fashion and Influence of Veronique and Gregory Peck". The latter exhibition has since closed, however the other two are still open. 

Keith Haring: The Political Line

It's been pretty colorful here on Little Hiccups lately and today's post is no exception.

A few weekends back I visited the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see The Political Line, an exhibition of Keith Haring's work.

Keith Haring (1958 - 1990) rose to fame in 1980s New York with his bold urban street culture and graffiti style artwork. Haring's work was often political in nature, touching on issues that concerned the artist including nuclear proliferation, racial inequality, the excesses of capitalism, environmental degradation, and AIDS awareness. 

During his brief but intense career Haring's work was displayed in more than 100 group and solo exhibitions. He also devoted much of his time to creating public artworks in dozens of cities worldwide, many of which were created for charities, hospitals, day care centers and orphanages. Haring's life was cut short when he succumbed to an AIDS related illness at the young age of thirty one in 1990. Despite such a relatively short career, Haring's work has left a lasting impression on a generation of artists and the public.

The Political Line showcases more than one hundred and thirty artworks including large scale paintings on canvases and tarpaulins, sculptures and subway drawings. Several pieces have not been published or on public view since Haring's death in 1990.

Let's take a look at some of the exhibition...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This Tuesday it was free entry day at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) so the girls and I went on an adventure in modern art.

Enigmatic Combat by Arshile Gorky was one of our favourites

Inspired by this post on Design Mom about visiting art galleries with kids, I decided to prepare a little treasure hunt for Ava to stave on the dreaded "I'm bored" comments which usually go hand in hand with kids and art galleries. Ava is quite fond of a treasure hunt and is always eager to hunt down every last item - no matter how boring it may seem for a five year old! I prepared a treasure hunt of eight paintings and two sculptures for Ava to track down. I made sure to select artworks that I knew would be currently on display at SFMOMA and that would be of interest to Ava. I also made sure that they were all located within relatively close proximity to each other within the museum. Visiting museums and galleries with small children always takes much longer than expected and I knew that we may have run out of time to finish the treasure hunt had I selected artworks spread out over the four floors of the museum. Had that happened, I know that Ava would have been quite upset.