Art Exhibitions to See Now in Greater Palm Springs

Art lovers have a lot to celebrate this April, with an array of shows blossoming across Greater Palm Springs. From Asian antiquities to cutting-edge contemporary art, local museums and galleries appeal to a range of interests.

All Under Heaven

The ongoing exhibition All Under Heaven at the Museum of Ancient Wonders in Cathedral City showcases a collection of Asian antiquities spanning Earth, heaven, and the afterlife. It includes precious objects such as Ikebana baskets, bronze bangles, and teeth-baring Buddhist Temple guards. “It’s among the rarest of collections ever assembled in this region and the first time these objects have been gathered and curated into one exhibition,” says executive director and chief curator Alberto Acosta, noting all the objects were donated to the museum by Heather James Fine Art, Marlene and Bruce Canter, and Tim Walsh. 

For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw

One of the first professional Native American photographers of the early 20th century, Oklahoma-born Horace Poolaw (Kiowa, 1906–1984) captured an intimate perspective of Indigenous culture on black-and-white film. This traveling exhibition of his work, on display through December at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs, “celebrates Poolaw’s subjects’ place in American life,” says Kate Anderson, director of public relations for the tribe. “Poolaw photographed friends, family, and numerous social events and activities over a 50-year period … often documenting Native people’s day-to-day lives in an era when this was not commonplace.”

Variations to a Theme: William Haines at Sunnylands

Concealed behind Sunnylands’ modernist façade, designed by architect A. Quincy Jones, a spirited mix of color, pattern, and patina springs forth — the vision of interior designer William Haines, whose bespoke furnishings and decorative style exuded opulent maximalism. In the 1930s, the silver-screen darling found his true calling as a decorator for the stars, from Joan Crawford to Carole Lombard.

Through June 2, this exhibition celebrates Haines’ mark on the 25,000-square-foot Rancho Mirage estate of Walter and Leonore Annenberg. “His work was unique and singular at a time in history when the midcentury aesthetic was everywhere,” notes design expert Patrick Dragonette. “To honor the past in many of his designs and yet to make them something new and different was one of his great gifts.”

Loretta Ayeroff: The Motel Series

In The Motel Series, on view through July 8 at Palm Springs Art Museum, photographer Loretta Ayeroff shares a selection of documentary images shot on Kodachrome 64 film in the early 1980s at motels in Desert Hot Springs. Devoid of people, the images depict an unromanticized life and a sense of absence: empty chairs, vacant walkways, and splashless pools.