Mind-Bending Journeys to Art in the Desert
45°, 90°, 180°, City © Michael Heizer | Ben Blackwell via Triple Aught Foundation
From remote land-art to Native creative heritage, the Southwest is a realm of creativity.
America’s desert landscapes pack a mysterious artistic punch. The wide-open spaces, austere beauty, wild landforms and, especially, the dazzling light have inspired creativity and beauty for millennia. A seeker could spend a lifetime pursuing the art and culture of the Desert Southwest. But if you plot these 12 destinations on a map, the journey will go on for quite awhile.
We’ll start with the desert art destination that’s the biggest, arguably strangest and definitely hardest to get to: CITY. Artist Michael Heizer spent decades building an otherworldly, literally monumental town-scale piece of abstract land sculpture in a remote Nevada location. Only a handful of invitees can see if on a given day. Writer Rosecrans Baldwin went there, took it all in and filed a report for Wildsam.
Southwest Art
A photo almanac chronicling the art of the American Southwest: heritage, historical figures, current practice and iconic works.
A much more accessible and lighthearted entry in the canon of desert “land art”: Seven Magic Mountains, sculptor Ugo Rondinone’s set of obelisks fashioned from brightly painted boulders, looming out of desert scrub just outside Las Vegas. It’s an experience: Both super-popular and ruggedly powerful. (Check out Wildsam’s field guide to Las Vegas.)
Centinela Traditional Arts in Chimayo, New Mexico is a vibrant place of connection between practitioners of traditional Rio Grande weaving and the wider world. Multigenerational craft and artistic talent creates stunning geometry and world-class workmanship.
Exploring the creative world of Arizona’s Hopi nation is perhaps best done with guidance from Hopi Arts Trail — not a literal path but rather a community-rooted itinerary and network of galleries and creators across the Hopi mesas. Connect with certified guides, too.
The original Meow Wolf in Santa Fe is the stuff of legend: The House of Eternal Return, built within a former bowling alley that Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin purchased for anarchic art collective Meow Wolf—a nearly endlessly explorable installation. Not only are there more than 70 rooms to step, climb or crawl into–some through hidden portals that bend time and space–but the house is also full of ephemera: texts, clues, bits of the house’s multidimensional mystery.
A dude ranch when painter Georgia O’Keeffe bought it in 1940, Ghost Ranch is now a retreat center and part of the larger cultural nexus known as Abiquiu, outside Santa Fe. Saddle up for a trail ride to see areas where O’Keeffe sought inspiration, like Cerro Pedernal and the colorful cliffs of Piedra Lumbre. The phenomenal Georgia O'Keeffe Museum conducts sensitive and in-depth tours of the artist’s home and studio.
One of the true curiosities of a region full of them, Arcosanti rises out of the desert north of Phoenix like a lost city. In fact, it is a living laboratory of alternative urbanism, founded by the late architect and ecologist Paolo Soleri as a model of humanistic and eco-friendly living. Yes, it’s heady! Tours are an unforgettable jolt to the mind.
The California desert resort of Palm Springs is, famously, a global center of midcentury modern architecture. And while any number of driving tours can take you to amazing places, Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center makes a good first stop—tucked in a significant 1961 building, it hosts rotating exhibits and runs tours to the knockout Frey House II, a part of the museum’s permanent collection.
The West Texas outpost Marfa emerged as an unlikely art center largely because of sculptor Donald Judd, who made the far-flung town his base of operations starting in 1971. Among many ramifications of Judd’s presence and Marfa’s rise as creative destination, the Chinati Foundation is the custodian of large-scale outdoor works by Judd and a select collection of artists.
Similarly, California’s Joshua Tree region has become known as a haven for off-kilter creativity. The Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum, built around the work of the Alabama-born conceptual sculptor, testifies to just how strange and wonderful things can get out under the sun, while the multi-artist installations of High Desert Test Sites continue the legacy of outlandish work in remote locales.
