Desert X Guide: 10 Must-See Art Highlights Across Greater Palm Springs
If you've heard the buzz and scrolled through stunning Instagram photos, you're ready to experience the second edition of Desert X—the acclaimed site-specific art exhibition that captivated the art world and drew over 200,000 visitors in its debut.
Spanning from Whitewater Preserve to the Salton Sea, with installations throughout Greater Palm Springs, these 19 artworks thoughtfully engage desert themes like Native heritage, immigration, climate change, resource depletion, gun violence, and midcentury modern architecture. They immerse viewers without preaching, inviting personal reflection.
Curated by artistic director Neville Wakefield, international artists are invited to explore the region and respond through their craft—no applications required.
Most installations are accessible anytime during the exhibition, which runs through April 21, though some sites, hubs, and events operate on specific days and times.
Start at a Desert X hub for a free program and map: Palm Springs (Ace Hotel & Swim Club, room 119), Palm Desert (73660 El Paseo), or Indio (82713 Miles Ave.). For full details, visit desertx.org.
10 Must-See Desert X Installations
With 19 works total, plan two days to see them all. These 10 highlights tour Greater Palm Springs, starting northwest.
1. Sterling Ruby | SPECTER
Los Angeles artist Sterling Ruby's glowing orange monolith SPECTER evokes a Photoshopped glitch in the landscape, rising dramatically off Snowcreek Canyon Road in Whitewater.
Location: 33.912473, -116.666832 | 98-2 Snowcreek Canyon Road, Whitewater
2. Julian Hoeber | Going Nowhere Pavilion #01 and Executed Variant DHS #1 (Q1, CJ, DC)
Los Angeles-based Julian Hoeber presents two Desert Hot Springs works: the concrete Möbius strip Going Nowhere Pavilion #01, inspired by Jacques Lacan's topological metaphors for the mind, and Executed Variant DHS #1, a pool-bound painting from his "Execution Changes" series, exploring logic, irrationality, history, and consciousness.
Location: 33.955493, -116.483245 | 12878-12822 Eliseo Road, Desert Hot Springs
3. Katie Ryan | Ghost Palm
Santa Monica's Katie Ryan crafts Ghost Palm, a nearly invisible steel, plastic, and glass sculpture of the native Washingtonia filifera palm, balancing fragility and power.
Location: 33.945130, -116.485106 | Bubbling Wells Road & San Gorgonio Street, Desert Hot Springs
4. Nancy Baker Cahill | Revolutions
Facing the wind farm and Mount San Jacinto along North Indian Canyon Drive, Nancy Baker Cahill's augmented reality piece Revolutions explores energy capture. (Her other AR work, Margin of Error, is at North Shore Yacht Club, Salton Sea.)
Location: 33.88409, -116.546112 | North Indian Canyon Drive (southwest). Use the 4th Wall app: tap Desert X for a two-minute animation.
5. Armando Lerma | Visit Us in the Shape of Clouds
Coachella native Armando Lerma, the sole local artist, murals a water tank with symbolic creatures—snake, parrot, fish, monkey, seashell, plants, and genie—guarding vital water resources.
Location: 33.714416, -116.147828 | Landfill Road to Polk Street
6. Mary Kelly | Peace is the Only Shelter
Mary Kelly transforms three Palm Springs bus shelters with Peace is the Only Shelter, featuring 1961 Women Strike for Peace slogans and bus schedules as Doomsday Clock metaphors.
Locations:
- 33.819063, -116.546868 | 333 S. Palm Canyon Drive
- 33.816109, -116.545457 | 469-499 S. Indian Canyon Drive
- 33.816693, -116.545452 | South Indian Canyon Drive
7. Cinthia Marcelle | Wormhole
Brazilian Cinthia Marcelle's Wormhole—portals bending time, space, and borders—appears in Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Indio, Coachella, and Tijuana, highlighting regional proximity to Mexico.
Locations:
- 33.802688, -116.545396 | 152 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
- 33.782359, -116.460422 | 68895 Perez Road #15, Cathedral City
- 33.720399, -116.358470 | 74-913 Highway 111, Suite 913, Indian Wells
- 33.720797, -116.220658 | 45-088 Oasis St., Indio
- 33.679969, -116.174693 | 1667 Sixth St., Coachella
- 32.533412, -117.038226 | Calzzapato, Constitucion 720, Tijuana, BC, Mexico
8. Pia Camil | Lover’s Rainbow
Mexico City's Pia Camil arches painted rebar rainbows along Highway 111 opposite The Atrium in Rancho Mirage (and in Baja, Mexico), symbolizing abandoned dreams revived with hope.
Locations:
- 33.767371, -116.448537 | Across from The Atrium, 69930 Highway 111, Rancho Mirage
- 32.03956, -116.6539 | Rancho San Marcos Toros Pintos S/N Km 88 +300, Ensenada, B.C., Mexico
9. Superflex | Dive-in
Danish collective Superflex nods to the desert's ancient seabed and climate threats with Dive-in at Palm Desert's Homme-Adams Park—a amphibious structure hosting drive-in screenings (details at desertx.org).
Location: 33.706510, -116.399303 | 72500 Thrush Road
10. Iván Argote | A Point of View
Paris-based Colombian Iván Argote's brutalist pyramid A Point of View at the Salton Sea features bilingual steps and a panoramic platform merging viewer with landscape.
Location: 33.53947, -115.92978 | 70th Avenue & Sea View Way
More Desert X Installations to Explore
Don't miss: Iman Issa at Sunnylands Center & Gardens (Rancho Mirage), Cara Romero on Gene Autry Trail billboards, Postcommodity in a Palm Desert midcentury home, Gary Simmons in Indio's former armory, and Cecilia Bengolea, Steve Badgett & Chris Taylor at Salton Sea.
Check desertx.org for maps, performances, lectures, and updates.
*Images by Lance Gerber, courtesy of the artists and Desert X
