Might the way forward for artwork festivals look much less like a white-walled conference centre and extra like a dusty motel within the Previous West? Within the excessive desert of Southern California, the Excessive Desert Artwork Honest (HDAF) made the case for an unorthodox artwork honest mannequin final weekend. With decrease prices and a novel location close to Joshua Tree, the honest is a part of a broader shift out there as collectors and gallerists alike develop weary of driving the identical artwork honest circuit and search to wrangle new audiences.
Pioneertown, positioned round 35 miles north of Palm Springs, seems at first look to be an deserted Eighties frontier settlement, full with wood saloons, a financial institution, a bathhouse and a jail. In fact, it was constructed within the Fifties as a movie set for Hollywood productions, extra just lately serving as a backdrop for the 2017 movie starring Aubrey Plaza, Ingrid Goes West.
The Pioneertown Motel was the place actors like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers as soon as hung their hats after lengthy days of taking pictures. Over the weekend, a brand new forged rotated by way of rooms and dusty grounds on the motel—the artwork crowd. The HDAF’s co-founder Nicholas Fahey says the organisers’ intention is to provide sellers a particular setting with no punishing overhead to take part; rooms for galleries had been priced at $3,500, effectively under the price of a stand at most main artwork festivals.
Dorado 806 Tasks’ room on the Excessive Desert Artwork Honest. Courtesy Excessive Desert Artwork Honest
“We began this as a result of gallerists had been in such a wierd area when it comes to how a lot (festivals) value and the way a lot it’s a must to promote simply to interrupt even,” Fahey says. “It permits established and mid-career galleries to point out issues they need to develop and get enthusiastic about to an viewers. And it permits new galleries to take an opportunity and take dangers.”
The honest additionally appeals to individuals’ and attendees’ wanderlust. “What number of instances are you gonna go to London, Paris, New York or Hong Kong?” Fahey says. “I hear from collectors on a regular basis—they get honest fatigue. They’re like, ‘Why am I going to go to 6 artwork festivals a yr? It is the identical galleries promoting the identical factor and the identical artist.’”
The expertise of the HDAF is definitely distinctive. Guests final weekend perused the 19 rooms on the Pioneertown Motel and a minimum of a dozen canines had been current on the honest—with various levels of curiosity within the artwork on view. Costs for works ranged from a number of hundred {dollars} to 5 figures, alongside a choice of publishers promoting books, zines and works on paper.
“I need all various kinds of folks to stroll away from right here and have one thing that they’ll have as part of their expertise,” Fahey says.
The artists (left to proper) Ry Rocklen, Phillip Okay. Smith, Ryan Schneider and Gisela Colon and moderator Andrew Berardini converse on a panel about artists working within the desert. Courtesy Excessive Desert Artwork Honest
A part of the honest’s draw is its off-site programming, which inspires guests to discover the encompassing space. Close to the motel alongside Pioneertown’s Mane Road, guests stopped by outlets stuffed with tchotchkes and Western put on and even a petting zoo. Reside music at native watering holes like Pappy & Harriet’s and The Pink Canine Saloon added a honky-tonk edge, whereas the artist Shepard Fairey carried out a DJ set on Friday night time. Organised excursions spotlighted desert artists together with Andrea Zittel and the late Noah Purifoy. With a comparatively small VIP contingent, the identical faces reappeared all through the weekend, giving the honest a social, close-knit really feel. In keeping with the organisers, round 4,000 guests attended the honest over the weekend, quadruple final yr’s attendance.
That success displays a broader market shift. A 2025 Deloitte survey discovered millennials prioritise spending on journey, eating and reside occasions over conventional belongings, a pattern formed by rising pupil debt, housing prices and inflation. The result’s rising curiosity in vacation spot festivals that double as a novel vacation. For a lot of collectors and sellers, the usual honest mannequin of piling right into a conference centre in an costly hub metropolis now not holds the identical attraction, making a weekend within the desert (or within the mountains, or on the seashore) a beautiful proposition.
“It’s actually seeped in native lure and data, and has the historical past of being dwelling to artists,” says the Los Angeles-based seller Megan Mulrooney concerning the excessive desert. “There’s this unimaginable sensibility out right here, and a love for the making of issues. I used to be actually drawn to it for that motive, however I additionally love exhibiting in an uncommon area—the bizarre topography, and being within the excessive desert is a kind of issues.”
Mulrooney’s eponymous gallery confirmed work by the Austin-based artist RF. Alvarez, who already has a robust collector base in close by Palm Springs. His Previous Masters-influenced work of queer home life within the American South resonate domestically, the place Western mythology overlaps with a historical past of discretion. Palm Springs as soon as served as a getaway for stars escaping studio morality clauses throughout Hollywood’s Golden Age, and the town remains to be dwelling—or a trip dwelling—to a big queer group. Considered one of Alvarez’s work can be on view within the Palm Springs Artwork Museum’s present exhibition A Queer Arcana: Artwork, Magic, and Spirit (till 18 October), which explores how magic and its affect has formed queer expressions in artwork and tradition.
Notes on A Heritage II (The Cruiser) (2026) by RF. Alvarez. Courtesy Megan Mulrooney Gallery
Amongst Alvarez’s newest works is a smouldering portrait of Al Parker, the late activist and grownup movie star who advocated for safer intercourse practices and died of Aids-related problems in 1992 at age 40. The portray offered on the honest for $11,000 to a neighborhood Palm Springs collector.
For all its mythologised remoteness, the excessive desert stays carefully tied to broader nationwide points. Driving alongside the US Route 62 towards Pioneertown, billboards and roadside memorials pay tribute to victims of police violence. On the day the honest opened, guests drove previous tons of of Yucca Valley residents participating in a No Kings protest, a part of nationwide demonstrations in opposition to US president Donald Trump. The area could also be attracting extra second and even third dwelling patrons, however a lot of its year-round inhabitants is working-class.
The honest donated a room to the Yucca Valley artist-run gallery High quality Cash, to lift funds for immigrant mutual support and authorized charges to oppose a proposed gated group in close by Joshua Tree. By excessive midday on Sunday, the artist Ryan Schneider stated round $15,000 had been raised by way of gross sales within the High quality Cash room, with works priced from round $300 to $3,000.
A view of the High quality Cash room on the Excessive Desert Artwork Honest Courtesy Excessive Desert Artwork Honest
“After I realised collectors are going to be popping out right here and spending cash, I assumed, ‘As an alternative of simply promoting artwork, let’s attempt to use the cash to assist this group,’” Schneider says. “There needs to be a group factor to this, and with nice folks coming in from LA and out of city, I wished to guarantee that native artists had been represented.”
In a lot of the excessive desert, the place unincorporated land means restricted oversight, tensions round actual property run excessive. The identical unfastened zoning rules which have traditionally allowed artist studios to flourish has additionally attracted speculative improvement, pushed by rising customer numbers to close by Joshua Tree Nationwide Park. Customer figures at that park elevated by 119% between 2011 and 2021, in response to the Nationwide Park Service, and peaked at 3.3 million in 2023. A surge in short-term leases within the area has strained housing availability and turn into a “big downside” for the group, Schneider says.
“We wish folks to come back out right here and go to and make investments locally, however there’s numerous parasitic funding,” Schneider says. “For those who’re gonna come out right here and purchase a house, do one thing that contributes in some way to the precise group.”
