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# Artist Combs the Planet for Best van Gogh Lookalike
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/artist-combs-the-planet-for-best-van-gogh-lookalike/
- Published: 2016-06-28T15:27:17.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:29:12.000Z
- Description: Calling all bearded redheads: Canadian artist and author Douglas Coupland is searching for Vincent van Gogh's closest lookalike.
- Author: Carey Dunne
- Tags: In Brief, doppelganger, Vincent van Gogh, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1)

![Contestants in Douglas Coupland's I Am Vincent competition (screen shot by the author)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/06/vincent-lead.jpg)

Contestants in Douglas Coupland’s I Am Vincent competition (screenshot by the author)

Calling all bearded redheads: Canadian artist and author [Douglas Coupland](https://www.coupland.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is [combing the planet](http://iamvincent.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#page-top) in search of Vincent van Gogh’s closest lookalike. The most convincing doppelgänger will win €5,000 ($5,689) and a trip to Vancouver. There, Coupland will 3D-scan the winner’s face and create a bronze sculpture after his likeness.

Called “I Am Vincent,” the sculpture will be the first installment of *Redheads*, a series dedicated to the gingers of the world. Why? Because redheadedness, which occurs in 1–2% of the global population, “is the most recent successful human mutation,” Coupland [writes](http://iamvincent.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#page-top). The “genetic magic” exemplified by redheadedness “is a microcosm of the way in which all life on Earth changes with time. I want this first bronze piece to be eternal but I also want it to be imbued with the twenty-first century. I’d like it to trigger discussion about new relationships between science, art and globalization.”

![Screen Shot 2016-06-23 at 12.12](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2016/06/screen-shot-2016-06-23-at-12-12.jpg)

Contestants in Douglas Coupland’s I Am Vincent competition (screenshot by the author)

If you look like van Gogh and that sounds like something your face can do, upload a photo of yourself to the [I Am Vincent](http://iamvincent.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#who) website, where viewers are voting for the painter’s most convincing double. Currently leading is Ivar Arpi, an [editorial writer](http://www.svd.se/av/ivar-arpi?ref=hyperallergic.com) for the Swedish newspaper *Svenska Dagbladet* who’s got a piercing stare. Trailing in third place is our hometown contender, Brooklyn resident [Robert Reynolds](https://hyperallergic.com/gogh-big-or-gogh-home-a-definitive-ranking-of-van-gogh-art-tributes/), star of the web series [*The van Gogh Show*](http://www.bkmag.com/2015/05/27/vincent-van-gogh-doppelganger-to-star-in-nyc-based-web-series/?ref=hyperallergic.com). With a red beard, hooded eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a slightly haunted expression, Reynolds started making his five-minute comedy shorts after strangers kept commenting on his uncanny resemblance to the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter. Unfortunately, according to the I Am Vincent voters thus far, Reynolds doesn’t hold a [candle](https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0048V1962?ref=hyperallergic.com) to Arpi.

There are nearly 500 more contestants vying for the van Gogh doppelgänger crown. Vote for your favorite [here](http://iamvincent.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com#who).