Desert X
dates: 25 February – 30 April 2017
Media and VIP preview: 22-24 February 2017
Desert X was conceived to engage and attract a new, diverse, international audience interested in art and visual culture to the Coachella Valley. The exhibition’s opening weekend will coincide with Modernism Week, an annual celebration of mid-century modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture, which takes place in Palm Springs. It will close after the 2017 Coachella Valley Music and Arts and Stagecoach Festivals in Indio, adding a new contemporary art audience to the thousands of design, architecture and music fans that these events bring to the Coachella Valley each year.
Desert X, which will be free and open to the public, will engage with the cultural, historic, and geographic specificity of the Coachella Valley and will include site-specific commissions by select international contemporary artists in a variety of non-traditional and institutional contexts to activate the landscape.
Desert X 2017 is curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield, chosen by the board for his commitment to producing and commissioning new works of art in alternative spaces. His varied résumé includes roles as curator of the site-specific exhibition Elevation 1049 in Gstaad, senior curatorial advisor for MoMA PS1, and curator of Frieze Projects.
Special media and VIP previews will take place February 22, 23, and 24, 2017. More information about these will be released in the fall. For media accreditation, please contact Livia Mandoul, livia@lynwinter.com
Desert X is currently funded by its board of directors and by philanthropists well known to the desert community. It has received generous support from individual donors, organizations and commercial entities doing business in the region, including program partners Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Palm Springs Art Museum, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Modernism Week, Sunnylands Center & Gardens and hotel partner Triada Palm Springs Hotel, an Autograph Collection Hotel.
To get involved and support Desert X as a Founding Member or Benefactor, please contact Ben Hartley at ben@desertx.org or visit the Desert X website for more information.
Desert X is a not-for-profit charitable organization founded under the name Desert Biennial to develop, organize and produce a major, international, contemporary art exhibition featuring site-specific installations in selected venues throughout the Coachella Valley and surrounding area. The themes and locations of the exhibition will engage surrounding communities, other Valley organizations, visitors, and students through works that respond to environmental, social and cultural conditions specific to the Valley, while also focusing attention on the creative energy of the participating artists and their work.