Desert X

International art exhibitions activating natural landscapes through site-specific works.
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Desert X 2027
Oct 30, 2027 – May 7, 2028
Coachella Valley
(324)

Desert X 2023 is currently open through May 7 in Coachella Valley, CA.

22/04/2026

In case you missed it: Gisela Colón, who participated in Desert X 2020, is featured in Art in America for her recent work, “Rios de Oro y Polvo (Parabolic Monolith Aurus Pulvum)" installed in Puerto Rico's El Yunque Rainforest.

At Desert X, Colón presented her signature monolithic, light-activated sculptures that shifted in response to the desert’s changing light, dissolving the boundary between object and atmosphere. Rooted in ideas of perception, energy, and the body’s relationship to space, her work transformed the landscape into a site of subtle, continuous change.

Her latest work continues this exploration across new terrains, extending a dialogue that began in the Coachella Valley into broader global contexts.

In your opinion, how does light shape the way we experience place?

Read more: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/gisela-colon-shimmering-obelisk-el-yunque-giza-1234780139/

14/04/2026

By employing drawing, sculpture, performance, writing and multimedia installation, Paloma Contreras Lomas addresses topics such as patriarchy, violence, class segregation, colonial guilt and constructed middle-class identity with a cinematic sense of humor. Her work seeks to push back at the violent male gaze of the landscape by confronting its historical association with the male libido, the occupation and instrumentalization of territory, and economies of extraction.

To learn more about this piece, visit desertx.org/.

Photos by .gerber

Paloma Contreras Lomas
”Amar A Dios En Tierra De Indios, Es Oficio Maternal”
Rancho Mirage, California, USA
Desert X 2023

09/04/2026

“Under the Same Sun” examines the tangled web between the sun, its material reality, and the energy, images, and forms that it produces. This multimedia installation features a greenhouse of native plants submerged in a cavernous underground room. Projected live-feed footage of the aboveground landscape bathes the greenhouse in light, allowing the plants to photosynthesize and grow. As part of the artist’s continued exploration of simulacra and immersive environments, this work brings to life the spectacle of biological reproduction through technological and visual means.

To learn more about this piece, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Stephanie Deumer
”Under the Same Sun”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert X 2022

02/04/2026

The midcentury home invites us to re-inhabit history and relive the past. Rather than focus on architecture, Postcommodity’s “It Exists in Many Forms” places this architrave of desert civilization within a framework of kinship. The work looks to desires specific to the midcentury, which sought to meticulously plan living while doubling as a site of spontaneity and celebration.

Caught between ritual and existence, the midcentury modern is better experienced than described. Like architect Walter White’s Wave House where it is sited, ”It Exists in Many Forms” amplifies complex sensations that attempt to intimate the desert as design element and object of allurement.

Photos by .gerber

Postcommodity
”It Exists in Many Forms”
Palm Desert, CA
Desert X 2019

29/03/2026

Inspired by the archaeological site of Hegra, Dana Awartani’s “Where The Dwellers Lay”  takes the form of a concave geometric sculpture that references the Nabataean tombs and their decorated facades. The 10-fold design of the structure is rooted in both the stairwell pattern that is commonly found carved on the exterior of the tombs, as well as in the artist’s expertise in Islamic geometry, making it an artwork that fuses the different cultural civilizations that have inhabited Saudi Arabia. 

To learn more about this piece, visit desertx.org.
Photos by .gerber

Dana Awartani
”Where the Dwellers Lay”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert X AlUla 2022

20/03/2026

“Hollow Earth” by Glenn Kaino is a sculpture made from glass and wood that creates the illusion of a tunnel descending deep into the Earth, housed in an abandoned shed. Once inside the darkened space, audience members become uneasy as they peer down a brightly lit and very deep-looking hole that drops into infinite darkness.

The title, invoking the numerous legends of a subterranean land, provokes the idea that the world is inside out – an overt reference to the crisis of our time. Paradoxically, as the viewer stares down at the piece, wondering about the depth of the tunnel, they are actually staring at themselves as seen through a series of mirrors. In this ironic case, art directly reflects (their) life and the meaning, value and power that they assign to it.

For more information, please visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Glenn Kaino
“Hollow Earth”
Indio, California, USA
Desert X 2017

13/03/2026

Responding to the ubiquity of the chain-link fence as a pattern spread across the Coachella Valley — a material that is meant to protect but also carries associations of violence — artist Rana Begum diffuses the material’s role as a divider through her manipulation of its form and color. Constantly changing with the movement of the sun and the visitors inside of it, the work emphasizes that nothing in life is static; everything, from the world outside to our emotions within, is in a continual state of flux.

To learn more about this piece, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Rana Begum “No. 1225 Chainlink”
Palm Desert, California, USA Desert X 2023

08/03/2026

Héctor Zamora describes his installation ”Tar HyPar” as an architecture that functions as a sound-amplifying device, continuing, “projecting toward the mountain walls and establishing an emotional dialogue where we are immersed in what is heard, magnifying the grandeur of the landscape and fostering a reciprocal contemplative relationship between the environment and all who inhabit it.”

To learn more about this installation, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Héctor Zamora
”Tar HyPar”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert AlUla X 2026

06/03/2026

Ibrahim El-Salahi’s piece, “Haraza Tree” is a continuation of his ongoing ‘Tree series’ around the turn of the millennium.

When unpacking the installation, El-Salahi shares, “It has long been my ambition to realize a forest of these ‘Tree’ sculptures in which the individual and the collective exist in harmony, the repetition in three-dimensional form embodying my vision of a forest where unity emerges from multiplicity, in which the individual and the collective exist in harmony. One tree is represented many times in the same form to represent the many aspects of the great human society. The only differences are in colours and cultures, but we are basically all the same.”

To learn more about this installation, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Ibrahim El-Salahi
“Haraza Tree”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert AlUla X 2026

04/03/2026

The sculptural ensemble by Mohammed AlSaleem comprises five of the seven monumental works distinguished by their formal diversity and conceptual references. Among them is ”Al-Ahillah (The Crescents)”, based on the repetition of the crescent motif within a geometric structure, and ”Al-Shurfa (Al Shuruf)”, inspired by the architectural form of the traditional Najdi balcony and articulated through a spiraling composition. ”Al-Shawka Al-Khumasiyya (The Thorn)” presents an abstract interpretation of a desert plant thorn, while ”Bar‘um Al-Zahra (Flower Bud)” expresses themes of growth and emergence through a reduced, sculptural form. The project also includes ”Al-Muthallathat (The Triangles)”, constructed from layered geometric units drawn from Najdi decorative architecture.

To learn more about this installation, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Mohammed AlSaleem
”The Thorn, AlShuruf Unit, The Triangles, Flower Bud, and Al Ahilla”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert AlUla X 2026

27/02/2026

Basmah Felemban’s “Murmur of Pebbles”, explores the valley as a living archive of movement and time. Drawing on the lore of the Jirry tribe, the artist interprets pebbles and sediment as records of environmental history, revealing cycles of collision, erosion, and stasis. The installation invites viewers to move slowly through the landscape, attuning to its subtle traces and listening to the land’s layered narratives.

To learn more about this installation and Desert X AlUla 2026, visit desertx.org.

Photos by .gerber

Basmah Felemban
“Murmur of Pebbles”
AlUla, Saudi Arabia
Desert AlUla X 2026

26/02/2026

Artist, Tarek Atoui, explains “The Water Song”, sharing, “The site of Desert X AlUla ceased to be a mere expanse of sandstone, sun and sand. I began to imagine the landscape as an archaeological excavation, where the act of digging unraveled a mysterious discovery: a constellation of horn-like hollow structures, seven in all, each oriented with quiet precision and positioned with intent.

Not far from this network of horns, the sound of water drops echoed from a stone cavity between the rocks - water slowly gathering through condensation in the desert air. Each time a drop formed and fell, air moved through the horns, bringing them to life to play a generative sequence of tones, a different chant with every drop.”   To learn more about this installation and Desert X AlUla 2026, visit desertx.org.
 Photos by .gerber     Tarek Atoui
“The Water Song” AlUla, Saudi Arabia  Desert AlUla X 2026

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