DESERT X - Eleven international artists will showcase their work in Desert X’s fifth site-specific exhibition in Palm Springs and throughout the Coachella Valley from March 8 to May 11, it was announced Thursday.
The exhibition, curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Co-curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, features artists from Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East exploring themes of nature, humanity and desert time. Specific sites for the art will be announced closer to the start of the event
“Curated by the place it temporarily inhabits, Desert X reveals the landscape of the Coachella Valley as a canvas of real and imagined histories, narrating tales of displacement, sovereignty, and adaptation superimposed over visible testaments of time,” Garcia-Maestas said in a news release.
The participating artists include Sanford Biggers, Jose Dávila, Agnes Denes, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Raphael Hefti, Kimsooja, Kapwani Kiwanga, Sarah Meyohas, Ronald Rael, Alison Saar and Muhannad Shono.
Desert X Executive Director Jenny Gil said the exhibition aims to transform perspectives on community and environmental issues.
“Guided by the belief that art has the power to transform, heal, and inform, a remarkable constellation of works by artists from around the world invites new understanding, hope, and alternate perspectives on vital issues that affect our communities and the environment,” Gil said.
The installations range from Biggers’ towering sequin sculptures symbolizing clouds to Denes’ living pyramid at Sunnylands Center & Gardens featuring native vegetation. Dávila’s marble blocks traverse the U.S.-Mexico border, while Luger’s nomadic caravan explores sustainable futures through Indigenous perspectives.
Other works include Hefti’s polymer fiber installation creating visual harmonics, Kimsooja’s light-transforming architecture, and Kiwanga’s pavilion reflecting on midcentury design. Meyohas presents light-shaping technology, Rael showcases 3D-printed earthen structures, Saar reimagines a soul service station, and Shono creates wind-driven fabric installations.
The exhibition explores themes of time, light and space while addressing sustainability in an evolving desert landscape. “Artists continue to be inspired by the idea of unadulterated nature but in its search, they have also come to recognize that this is an idea and that the realities of the world we live in now are both more complex and contested,” Wakefield said.
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