Palm Springs Art Museum is proud to announce Unsettled, a sweeping presentation of contemporary art by more than 75 artists living or working in the Greater West. The fertile terrain of Unsettled is a “super region” that runs from the top of Alaska, through the North American West, and all the way down to Central America. In their work, the artists explore the geography of vast frontiers, rich natural resources, diverse indigenous peoples, and the inevitable conflicts that arise when these factors coexist. On view from October 27 through April 30, 2019, this provocative exhibition looks to the future while also honoring the past and those who created cultures and places millennia before it was declared ‘unsettled.’
Organized by the Nevada Museum of Art and curated by JoAnne Northrup, its Curatorial Director and Curator of Contemporary Art, in collaboration with legendary artist Ed Ruscha, Unsettled includes work that ranges from painting and sculpture to photography, performance, Twitter poems, and site-specific installations, spanning millennia, place, gender, and race, that through the eyes of artists tells the compelling, and evolving, story of the Greater West.
In addition to Ruscha, Unsettled features works by Gerard Murillo, Sonia Falcone, Ana Teresa Fernández, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, Edgar Arceneaux, Andrea Zittel, Nicholas Galanin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, and many other artists. There are 19 works from Palm Springs Art Museum’s collection featured in this exhibition, including major pieces by Rufino Tamayo, Phillip K. Smith III, Mark Bradford, and Wendy Red Star. The Palm Springs presentation marks the exhibition’s final public viewing following successful stops at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno and at the Anchorage Museum, Alaska.
“The notion of the Greater West as a new frontier serves as a call to action, awakening humankind’s most basic instincts to discover, explore, exploit, conquer, and tame,” says Brooke Hodge, Palm Springs Art Museum Director of Architecture and Design, who contributed an essay to the catalogue and serves as curator of the Palm Springs presentation. “The California desert is an especially fertile ground for these motivations, even as the encroachment of 21st century technology offers an unsettling vision for the future of a still largely unsettled landscape.”
A major publication accompanies the exhibition. Published by Hirmer Verlag, the Unsettled book comprises 224 pages and features 110 color images, and will be available for purchase in the Palm Springs Art Museum store.
A robust program of lectures, workshops, performances, pop-up studios, and other special events is planned in connection with the exhibition.
For Palm Springs Art Museum locations, hours, admission prices, membership opportunities and exhibitions, please visit psmuseum.org or call (760) 322-4800.
