I recently wrote a blog post about immersive art exhibitions in New York City. In it, I mentioned that I was looking forward to an upcoming digital/experiential exhibit at Chelsea Piers, Arte Museum. It turns out that I enjoyed this one so much I think it deserves its own post! Needless to say, it exceeded expectations. Here’s what I experienced . . .

Arte Museum is easy to locate within Chelsea Piers, and well signed. I went first thing in the morning and recommend doing this if you possibly can. I had no wait to get in and I could be alone in most of the galleries. Arte Museum is an immersive digital art exhibition by d’strict, with installations around the world including Juju Island (Korea), Las Vegas, and Dubai. The scope of this installation, as well as the coordinated sounds and scents, really made this experience stand out compared to other experiential/immersive art installations I have visited.

The first area, Waterfall Infinite, had its own scent (“Waterfall” – available for purchase at the gift shop at the end along with other scents!) that was fresh, woodsy, and aquatic. The reflecting surfaces made the waterfall seem to go on forever, and reminded me a bit of a similar room in SUMMIT One Vanderbilt.

The next area, “Flower,” was scented (unsurprisingly) with a garden scent that was aquatic, green, and floral. Digital flower petals on the floor scattered as you walked through them.

The next room, “Wave,” is the one I have seen used in ads for Arte Museum, and being in the room I can see why. Enormous waves appear to crash just on the other side of a tall glass wall. It’s an illusion of course, as this is a digital installation, but a powerful one. It was very relaxing just to be in that room and I could almost feel negative ions being released into the air even though it was not possible!

It’s hard to pick a favorite room, but if I had to the “Beach” might be the one. The scent here was very beachy – fresh, green, watery, and aromatic. Bioluminescent algae lit up and scattered as you walked along the “sand,” and whales and other marine life swam around you.

In the next area, the “Forest,” the accompanying scent was bamboo-like, green, aquatic and woody. Forest creatures stalked and crept around you.

The next area, “Star,” reminded me a bit of Yayoi Kusama’s infinity mirrored rooms

This room, “Tornado,” was just as it sounds, a swirling tornado of haze that you could circle and experience (safely!).

Live Sketchbook was a fun interactive way to influence what you saw, just across from the “Forest.” You could pick up a sheet with the outline of an animal, draw designs on it, scan the page, and it would appear moving across a large display. Following this was a huge room with a series of different installations – one about New York City, another beach-related, and a third of Paintings of Joseon.

After all the installations, you can visit the gift shop (of course) or go to the Arte Cafe, with some interactive elements (you can choose a fun image and it will move to stay on top of your beverage as you move it around the table).

You can get an idea of how it feels to walk through this immersive space from my Instagram reel about Arte Museum. And although many discount these experiential art exhibitions, much is adjacent to (perhaps even borrowed from!) serious contemporary artists. For instance, the “Stars” room here bears a resemblance not only to Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Room (see the first photo below for when I was in one at David Zwirner Gallery in fall of 2019) but also to Pipilotti Rist’s installations (see one at the New Museum about nine years ago here) and the “Tornado” is quite like Anish Kapoor’s “Ascension” I saw at the Venice Biennale in 2011 (see the other two photos below).

I don’t equate an experiential art installation like Arte Museum to serious contemporary art, but I want to point out that I don’t find my enjoyment of it to be a “guilty pleasure.” Some of these digital experiences have a reputation for being a backdrop for an interesting Instagram photo more than an art exhibit – but many contemporary art exhibits also lend themselves to selfies! I think you can get out of Arte Museum what you choose to find, and I found it to create a sense of wonder that was at times transporting. There aren’t many places you can go these days where you realize you have had a smile on your face for quite some time . . . and that is definitely what I experienced here.