Jacob Semiatin created vibrant watercolor paintings available for viewing at Rubine Red Gallery in Palm Springs.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY RUBINE RED GALLERY
The Estate Collection
Rubine Red Gallery
Ongoing
In addition to contemporary works, Rubine Red Gallery represents the estates of four artists who had ties to the Coachella Valley and whose paintings and works on paper still resonate with local collectors. They include Lynne Mapp Drexler, a New York School abstract expressionist whose effervescent paintings, executed with large, exuberant brush strokes, reference both the landscape and still life; Malcolm H. Myers, a painter and printmaker whose abstract works feature lively animals, jazz musicians, and mythical figures; Reginald Pollack, whose early work consisted of drawings, paintings, and printmaking, while his later work (after 1970) was painted with oil and sometimes pencil or marker to create imaginative, hyper-layered works of faces and swirls; and Jacob Semiatin, who notably worked his abstract expressionist visions into vibrant watercolor paintings (shown). rubineredgallery.com
Yaacov Agam
Sunnylands Center & Gardens
Through June 2022
In Motion: Agam at Sunnylands will play all sorts of tricks on your eyes. In the season-long exhibition, Israeli-born artist Yaacov Agam offers sculpture, lenticular paintings, and a serigraph series showing how combinations of basic shapes, lines, and colors can “evolve.” Agam won the attention of the late Walter and Leonore Annenberg when the artist mounted the first show at the Palm Springs Art Museum’s current location in 1976. The Annenbergs especially liked Square Waves, which they purchased, beginning a long friendship with Agam.
PHOTOGRAPH BY THE ANNENBERG TRUST AT SUNNYLANDS. PHOTO BY MARK DAVIDSON. ©2020 ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK/ADAG, PARIS
3x6 Double Frame Interplay (1976) by Yaacov Agam at Sunnylands.
Helen Frankenthaler
Palm Springs Art Museum
Through Feb. 27, 2022
Helen Frankenthaler, who died in 2011, was the rare woman who not only ran with the “big boys” of abstract expressionism but also charted her own path. She famously introduced a soak-stain technique to achieve a watercolor effect on canvas and was influential in AbEx’s shift toward “color field” painting.
PHOTOGRAPH BY COLLECTION: HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION, NEW YORK ©2021 HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION INC. / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
Solar Imp (1995) by Helen Frankenthaler at Palm Springs Art Museum.
PHOTOGRAPH BY HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION, NEW YORK ©2021 HELEN FRANKENTHALER FOUNDATION INC. / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
Helen Frankenthaler's acrylic painting on paper Arie (1995) appears in an exhibition of the artist's late works at Palm Springs Art Museum.
David Černý
Hohmann
Jan. 1–29, 2022
You probably don’t know the name David Černý, but if you’ve been to downtown Palm Springs in the last few years, you’ve likely seen the Czech sculptor’s “babies” — 10 larger-than-life fiberglass sculptures, each one more than 11 feet long and almost 9 feet tall.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HOHMANN FINE ART
Resin X-ray work by David Černý at Hohmann.
Southern California All-Stars
Melissa Morgan Fine Art
Feb. 10–March 4, 2022
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY MELISSA MORGAN FINE ART
Andy Moses
C. Dutch
Coda Gallery
February 18–28, 2022
C. Dutch presents works using materials such as handmade optics, polymer films, acrylics, and resin to explore the formal qualities of light and color. “Inside each Lucite box composition,” says gallery director Sam Heaton, “light is shaped and sculptured as if a solid, then blended, merged, and projected to create a stunning illusion of three dimensionality.”
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY CODA GALLERY
C. Dutch at Coda Gallery.
Intersect Palm Springs
Feb. 10–13, 2022
The Intersect Palm Springs art fair at Palm Springs Convention Center features about 60 galleries and their selections of post-war and contemporary art. Perrotin (Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai) is among the top exhibitors, offering works by Gabriel Rico, Leslie Hewitt, and Desert X alum Iván Argote. Others include Edward Cella Art & Architecture (Los Angeles), Galerie Gmurzynska (Zurich, New York), PDX Contemporary Art (Portland), Marc Straus (New York), Andrew Rafacz (Chicago), Nancy Hoffman Gallery (New York), and Peter Blake Gallery (Laguna Beach). Hohmann and Melissa Morgan Fine Art represent.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY INTERSECT PALM SPRINGS
Nathalia Edenmont at Intersect Palm Springs.
High Desert Test Sites
April 16–May 29, 2022
The 12th edition of High Desert Test Sites features nine new site-specific works in Pioneertown, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, and Wonder Valley. Curated by Iwona Blazwick, director of London’s famous Whitechapel Gallery, HDTS 2022: The Searchers shines light on “regenerative ruin,” a concept that follows 21st-century human intervention in our desert region. “As a historically nomadic environment,” she notes, “the desert has played host to waves of different existences — transitory settlements, sanctuaries, and living experiments.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY HIGH DESERT TEST SITES
High Desert Test Sites features site-specific artworks.
Desert Open Studios
March 12–13 and 19–20, 2022
The free, self-guided tour is an invitation into the creative spaces of about 70 artists working throughout the Coachella Valley. “We created a mission of uniting the east and west valley and giving visitors a sneak peek into the inner world of the artists,” says Kim Manfredi, who along with fellow artists Lynda Keeler and Anne Bedrick organized the inaugural tour last year.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY DESERT OPEN STUDIOS
October Rains by Kim Manfredi, organizer of Desert Open Studios.
Visiting a studio, she says, “allows the artists to share their tools, their materials, their personal narrative” with visitors, who can ask questions and even purchase the art. The Coachella Valley Art Center in Indio hosts a group preview exhibition March 4–13, with an opening-night party on March 4.
desertopenstudios.com