neville wakefield

Desert X Brings International Art Exhibit to Valley in 2017

Opening will coincide with Modernism Week and close after Coachella Valley Music and Art Festival

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neville wakefield
Desert X Artistic Director Neville Wakefield on a site visit for the exhibition.
PHOTO BY ELIZABETA BETINSKI

The Coachella Valley will be home to an international art exhibition when Desert X unveils its two-month long inaugural event starting on February 25, 2017.

The exhibition will focus on works that respond to the environment, social and cultural conditions specific to the region with installation sites from Palm Springs to the Salton Sea. The exhibit will include select international contemporary artists in a variety of non-traditional and institutional contexts.

Desert X is curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield, whose work has drawn critical praise for showing new art in alternative spaces. Wakefield oversaw a similar art event, Elevation 1049, in the Swiss Alps town of Gstaad. He is currently involved in the ongoing redesign and rebranding of Playboy magazine.

In an interview with Blouinartinfo.com, Wakefield said, “Rather than having a preconceived idea which is then illustrated through the art, I’m interested in how a place, in this instance the desert, can act as curator.”

The opening of Desert X will coincide with Modernism Week, an annual celebration of Desert Modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture in Palm Springs, and with the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio.

Desert X was conceived in 2015 by Susan Davis, editorial director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, to “bring the finest international artists to the Coachella Valley to create art, engage viewers, and focus attention on the Valley’s environment — its natural wonders as well as socio-political-economic issues that make it vibrant, curious, and exciting,” according to the Desert X website.

The event has attracted several individual donors from the valley and program partners such as 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.

Visit www.desertx.org for more information.