Among the sun-soaked dirt and swaying palm trees of the Coachella Valley, a striking artistic oasis emerges once more. This spring, Desert X—the celebrated biennial outdoor art exhibition—returns for its fifth edition, offering a bold new collection of site-specific installations.
Running from March 8 to May 11, this year’s gathering features 11 artists from across the globe, including the Saudi artist Muhannad Shono, the Korean artist Kimsooja, the American artist Cannupa Hanska Luger, and the Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga. Organized by longtime Desert X curator Neville Wakefield and Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, the director of exhibitions at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York, this edition takes a special interest in speculative futures, ancient pasts, and the role of light in optical perception.
Desert X has become known for large-scale, interactive works that take advantage of its wide open desert setting, and this year will be no exception. The artist Alison Saar plans to create a reimagined roadside gas station that combines community-crafted elements and salvaged materials. Kiwanga will erect a pavilion-like structure that reflects on the iconic midcentury designs of nearby Palm Springs.
The intersection of art and science is also a recurring theme: Ronald Rael’s Adobe Oasis uses robotic programming to create structures entirely from mud, while Sarah Meyohas employs innovative technology to project ribbon-like light onto the desert floor. Also on view is Agnes Denes's The Living Pyramid, which features real desert flora cascading along the pyramid, putting the cycle of life on view.
Desert X, which has been staging this outdoor art show since 2017, was inspired by the legacy of the Land Art movement of the late '60s and early '70s, when artists sought to create work outside of the confines of institutional walls.
“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,” curator Garcia-Maestas says.
Desert X is free and open to the public. Visitors are encouraged to check details for each piece at desertx.org.
