Desert X 2025 art installations extended
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (KESQ) – Desert X installations by four artists in the 2025 exhibition, which officially closed on May 11, will remain on view alongside works from prior editions, giving visitors a last chance to experience Desert X over Memorial Day weekend and through the summer and early fall.
Now on view through and including June 1, 2025:
Agnes Denes, The Living Pyramid
Kimsooja, To Breathe–Coachella Valley
Kapwani Kiwanga, Plotting Rest
Now on view through and including October 1, 2025:
Jose Dávila, The act of being together
These works were featured in the 2025 exhibition curated by Artistic Director Neville Wakefield and Co-Curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas that activated the desert landscape. Installations by artists from around the globe provided alternative ways of looking at the transformational effects of nature and humanity.
Works from prior editions of Desert X continue on view indefinitely:
Felipe Baeza, Finding Home in My Own Flesh (Desert X 2021)
Jeffrey Gibson, ALIVE! (Desert X 2017)
Armando Lerma, Visit Us in the Shape of Clouds (Desert X 2019)
Armando Lerma, La fiesta en el desierto (Desert X 2017)
Through October 1, 2025 in Desert Hot Springs: Jose Dávila’s massive, monolithic marble blocks in The act of being together appear splintered across both time and space. Drawing on Robert Smithson’s concept of site/nonsite dialectics, Dávila brings the stone blocks from a quarry a few hundred miles across the U.S.-Mexico border to the Coachella Valley, connecting the two locations by highlighting the void of their origin and the striking presence they create in a foreign landscape. To reach their new home, the blocks had to cross the physical border while also traversing a metaphorical border between the seen and the unseen. Moved by the invisible forces of unknown histories, they evoke the archeological relics of ancient civilizations and the potential future of life beyond our own.
Through June 1, 2025 at Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage: The Living Pyramid by pioneering artist and philosopher Agnes Denes is a monumental sculpture and environmental intervention on view at Sunnylands Center & Gardens. This first desert iteration of Denes’s pyramid structure is planted with vegetation that is native to the region. Its structure and appearance have transformed since its installation in November 2024 and continues to evolve according to the slow growth cycles of the desert environment. But it is the life-cycle of the plants - their growth, transformation and eventual death – that animates the pyramid, one of the most iconic forms of human civilization, and in so doing reminds us that within care and nurture can be found the spirit of our endurance.
Through June 1, 2025 in Desert Hot Springs: To Breathe – Coachella Valley by Kimsooja invites an interaction with the essential elements of the desert: the texture of sand underfoot, the air we breathe, and the light around us. Drawing inspiration from bottaris, the fabric-encased bundles of belongings prominent in her work and in Korean culture, she describes this installation as a “bottari of light.” By wrapping the glass surface in a unique optical film, the physical architecture is transformed into a dynamic spectrum of light and color. The work reflects its counterpart work in the desert of AlUla, Saudi Arabia while also acknowledging the historical origins of the Light and Space movement on the West Coast of the United States.
Through June 1, 2025 in Palm Springs: In the desert, where concepts of shelter, freedom, expansiveness, and enclosure have shaped midcentury dreams. Kapwani Kiwanga’s Plotting Rest, a pavilion-like structure reflects on the iconic midcentury design found in Palm Springs, signaling protection while offering none. Its roof, a lattice made of interlocking triangles, hovers overhead, allowing the elements to pass through and casting ever-changing shadows on the ground. Inspired by the quilting motif known as “flying geese,” this pattern resonates with the contested narratives of the Underground Railroad, serving as an encrypted guidance system for those fleeing slavery toward the perceived freedom of the North. Kiwanga’s sculpture fosters contemplation and hope while reminding us that history is marked by successive migrations.
EXPERIENCE DESERT X
Hours and Locations
Exhibition opening hours are from sunrise to sunset, except for Sunnylands Center & Gardens, Wednesday – Sunday: 8:30 am – 4:00 pm. Visitors are encouraged to check details for each artists’ work at desertx.org. Free Admission.
The Desert X 2025 map of artist installations can be found online at desertx.org and via the Desert X app.
Leave No Trace
Desert X encourages visitors to follow official Leave No Trace guidelines. Plan ahead and prepare, walk on designated paths, dispose of waste properly, leave what you find, respect wildlife, don’t smoke, and be considerate of other visitors.
