Recreating Rothko Chapel — in Medellín In Colombia, a pop-up version of Houston's art-as-spiritual-experience landmark Photo of Molly Glentzer Molly Glentzer July 14, 2016 More Comments Print 5 1 of 5At the Museo de Arte Moderno Medellin, museum curator Emiliano Valdez, Rothko Chapel director of community engagement Ashley Clemmer Hoffman, and visiting curator Maria Iovino sit in the Rothko Chapel installation. The pop-up chapel is on view in Medellin, Colombia, through Sept. 11. (For more photos, scroll through the gallery.) Photo: Courtesy Ashley Clemmer Hoffman 2 of 5A recreation of Houston's Rothko Chapel in the original armory building of the Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín, on view July 14-Sept. 11.Photo: Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín 3 of 5A recreation of Houston's Rothko Chapel in the original armory building of the Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín, on view July 14-Sept. 11.Photo: Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín 4 of 5Views of the Rothko Chapel exhibition at the Museo de Arte Moderno Medellin.Photo: Ashley Clemmer Hoffman 5 of 5Exterior view of the Museo de Arte Moderno Medellin, whose original building - now an annex - is a reclaimed industrial space.Photo: Ashley Clemmer Hoffman

From the outside, where the windows are covered with bars, the converted brick and stucco armory building in Medellín, Colombia, appears an unlikely place to find serenity. Even if you saw the structure's shape as vaguely church-like, it's not where you'd expect to have a profound experience akin to visiting the Rothko Chapel.

But this is the home of the Museo De Arte Moderno Medellín. And for the exhibition "Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Overture," which opens Thursday, the cavernous space has been recreated as a traveling version of Houston's ultimate art-as-spiritual-experience landmark.