From press release:
March 12–May 16, 2021 at sites across the Coachella Valley. Thirteen artists from eight countries will be presented in theexhibition curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Co-Curator César
García-Alvarez. Desert X 2021 will be among the first art experiences in the region since
widespread lockdowns, offering a safe, outdoor experience that is free and open to all.
García-Alvarez. Desert X 2021 will be among the first art experiences in the region since
widespread lockdowns, offering a safe, outdoor experience that is free and open to all.
Additionally, Gucci will be providing generous support to Desert X this year and introducing a
Pit Stop at the exhibition. The Pit Stop will celebrate the recent collaboration between Gucci and
The North Face and the spirit of exploration and adventure both brands embody. The Pit Stop
will feature a unique geodesic dome welcoming visitors to Desert X. The North Face x Gucci
dome installation uses different materials to recall the temporary and transient nature of
landscapes, travel, and exploration.
Pit Stop at the exhibition. The Pit Stop will celebrate the recent collaboration between Gucci and
The North Face and the spirit of exploration and adventure both brands embody. The Pit Stop
will feature a unique geodesic dome welcoming visitors to Desert X. The North Face x Gucci
dome installation uses different materials to recall the temporary and transient nature of
landscapes, travel, and exploration.
A Desert X Visitor Guide will contain up-to-date information on how to experience the
exhibition and its public and education programs safely in compliance with CDC, State and
County regulations.
The Desert X 2021 map of artist installations can be found online at desertx.org from March 12
and via the Desert X 2021 app .
Desert X Hub at the Ace Hotel & Swim Club
701 E Palm Canyon Dr, Palm Springs
Stop by to pick up your Desert X 2021 guide, map of artist installations and visitor information.
Visit desertx.org for opening hours.
Visit desertx.org for opening hours.
Pop-In Store - Super Number One x DX 21
463 North Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
Stop by for Desert X swag, made with Windmill City Printing and other local companies.
Visit super-number-one.com for hours.
Opening hours subject to CDC, State and County regulations.
For more on each art project and artist, jump below
In What Lies Behind the Walls , Zahrah Alghamdi creates a monumental sculptural wall, which,
like a geological extrusion, reveals the different stratas of time as they have been captured both
in millenia of geological transformation and the last few centuries of rapid development so
connecting the desert landscape of the Coachella to the transformations of other deserts across
the globe.
like a geological extrusion, reveals the different stratas of time as they have been captured both
in millenia of geological transformation and the last few centuries of rapid development so
connecting the desert landscape of the Coachella to the transformations of other deserts across
the globe.
Women’s Qualities by Ghada Amer is a social project that polled diverse communities within
the Coachella Valley, whose representations take the form of word gardens that are dependent
on nature, care and other activities traditionally associated with femininity.
the Coachella Valley, whose representations take the form of word gardens that are dependent
on nature, care and other activities traditionally associated with femininity.
Felipe Baeza ’s mural Finding Home in My Own Flesh grapples with the erasure of queer
communities of color from multiple histories and places integral to the Coachella Valley. From
the lack of spaces that nurture racialized queer bodies, to the absence of queer voices in the
recorded stories of the local labor movement, to the many who have died from HIV/AIDS, this
work acknowledges both the invisibility and the potential to re-insert these voices back into the
stories they have been removed from.
Living Smoke; A Tribute to the Living Desert , in partnership with the Jordan Schnitzer Family
Foundation, a specially-commissioned Desert X Smoke Sculpture by Judy Chicago, scheduled
for April 9, continues the artist’s practice since the 1960s of making work in counterpoint to the
male-dominated narratives of Land Art, including ‘Atmospheres’ or smoke pieces aimed at
momentarily transforming and feminizing the landscape without leaving a mark or trace.
In The Wishing Well, Serge Attukwei Clottey speaks to the challenges various communities
face when accessing potable water. Structures made from Kufuor gallons, used in rural regions
of Ghana to move water from sources to homes, echo a standing well—a place to journey to in
search of what should be a more accessible, natural resource.
Never Forget by Nicholas Galanin addresses the issue of monuments and what they
memorialize, functioning as both a raising of consciousness and a call to action, that by linking
to the landback movement, interrogates the ideas of land on which the land art movement has
been historically based.
Alicja Kwade ’s sculptural work ParaPivot (sempiternal clouds) is at once an atomic model and
a geological proposition. The seemingly icy, stone fragments, in contrast to the desert,
reference current global issues, ideas of space– both micro and macro, relativity and time
between terrestrial land and outer space.
In a new chapter of his ongoing project Frequencies, specially modified for the home learning
experience brought upon by the pandemic, Oscar Murillo collaborates with hundreds of young
people from schools across the Coachella Valley to broaden an archive, via student-intervened
canvases, that indexes the experiences of young people through mark-making.
Christopher Myers’ The Art of Taming Horses explores the relationship between myth and
history to shed light on lesser known stories of the region. Through a new series of equestrian
sculptures adorned with narrative banners Myers tells of African-Americans who traveled South
to escape bondage and of Mexican-Americans who journeyed north for a better life. Through a
fictional story of a pair of cowboy friends, one African-American and one Mexican, Myers shed
light on the kinds of lives these communities could have had here one day.
In The Passenger, a large-scale maze structure made from woven palm tree fiber walls,
Eduardo Sarabia examines the desert as a border through the trope of the journey—a motif
that connects peoples across geographies and cultures.
Xaviera Simmons employs billboards in Because You Know Ultimately We Will Band A Militia
to craft language and image that confronts white stereotypes and complicity within narratives
that shape our societal structures.
In a diorama representing the life of one of the early homesteaders, Kim Stringfellow
Jackrabbit Homestead chronicles one of the less remembered histories of desert land that
belongs to the Jackrabbit homesteader, which began in 1938 with Southern California’s Small
Tract Act.
Inspired by pictures of the region that have helped construct its visual imaginary, Vivian Suter’s
Tamanrasset is an installation of paintings and light inside an iconic modernist building. The
work translates the desert terrain, as image, into abstracted forms and colors--drawing attention
to the desert as a condition with emotional and psychological dimensions.
