The Portland Aquarium is making a return to Portland, but this time, with a lot fewer living animals and a lot more creativity.

Think 20-foot long cartoonish versions of whales, bubblegum pink blobfish paintings and a booklet full of facts — developed by a team of marine biology experts — to follow along with as guests scope out more than 100 hand-crafted species.

It’s a vision that Mike Bennett, a Portland-based artist, called the “Portland Aquarium,” an immersive educational art installation coming to downtown Portland on Friday, June 6. For the first time, Bennett’s art will be animated and accompanied by composer André Allen Anjos, better known by his stage name RAC.

“The ocean is artistically so free,” Bennett said. “There’s so much we don’t know.”

No, this isn’t the 12,500-square-foot space that closed in February 2016.

No, there are no live animals.

Yes, all of the facts and species have been verified by a team of marine biology experts — so it’s legit.

And yes, it’s sea-riously cool.

“The cartoon world starts from the sidewalk,” Bennett said. An artist was painting the outside walls to mimic the interior on Wednesday, May 28.

Bennett, in collaboration with Elakha Alliance and Big Fish Lab, created this art installation in about four months, which is when its Broadway location was secured after being a vacant spot for more than five years.

Chanel Hason, a marine biologist at Elakha Alliance, helped direct Bennett’s art to more accurately represent the animals, while sill giving him leeway to be playful.

But, those sea otter tails had to be shortened — it’s a critical differential to its river counterpart.

“When I moved to Portland, I was really sad that there wasn’t an aquarium to be able to work and educate people about marine life,” Hason explain. “This is kind of like a dream come true for me to be able to educate people in my own backyard about the underwater world.”

She’s been in her career field since she was 5 years old, after a visit to SeaWorld, vowing she’d study marine biology.

Growing up, Bennett lived a three-hour drive from the National Aquarium in Baltimore, but that didn’t stop him from begging to go every year for his birthday.

“It was such a special place that it stuck with me,” Bennett said of its impact on this project.

In 2021, Bennett hosted at at-home event — which wasn’t unusual since he used to paint in his garage — turning his entire yard into the ocean, called “A, B, Sea,” teaching children the alphabet and about ocean life.

The more than 1,000 people who flooded his yard inspired him to expand beyond his home shows. Bennett said one of the best parts of these installation is the full circle of education. Children learning the alphabet while subsequently schooling their parents on animal species.

For the “Portland Aquarium,” Bennett said the most intriguing species to create are the whales, deep sea creatures and anything from the coast, mostly because he loves seals and bird. An honorable mention are the gulls, which will be animated to flap their wings.

What will it be like?

Participants will start the adventure from the sidewalk, and enter the Cascadia Marine Lab, which is a fictional research lab based at the edge of the ocean. Professor Wade C. Bennett, played by Bennett himself, is stuck at the bottom of the ocean while trying to photograph a giant squid.

Guests play the part of “field observer,” using their booklet to spot all of the creatures cited in the local area. There are six biomes to explore and more than 100 species to see. Don’t forget to lookout for the missing goldfish, Gilly.

“I just know that people are going to walk in here, as we’ve seen, expecting real animals, and if they can just be a little spontaneous and walk through the space, I think they’re gonna have an experience they weren’t expecting and honestly feel a lot better,” Bennett said. “There’s so much unknown. It’s just like the ocean.”

Here’s what to know:

Times: Open from 11  a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Address: 603 S.W. Broadway, Portland.

Tickets: General admission costs $14, children younger than 12 cost $10, and children under 2 are free. Admission is valid for all open hours and includes a free booklet. Guests can stay all day, if their heart really desires.

Grand opening: Friday, June 6, starting at 11 a.m. with a ribbon cutting.

For more information, visit mikebennettstudios.com.