WHAT

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival adds newly commissioned, large-scale, immersive works by acclaimed local and international artists and designers to established art program.

WHO  

Nine international artists, designers, collectives and locally-run, participatory art programs, including four newly appointed:

Kumkum Fernando–Sri Lankan-born artist who transforms found objects into art by bridging fine art and design with a deep appreciation for ancient and traditional forms and marries his pieces with self-penned poetry.

Vincent Leroy–French artist who often journeys to the overlooked and sometimes uninhabitable corners of the world to display his ethereal artwork and challenge our perception of real and imagined spaces in the context of our increasingly digitized world.

Güvenç Özel–Cyber Physical Turkish architect, artist and critical technologist who is an interdisciplinary innovator and internationally recognized pioneer of Extended Reality, interactive robotics and machine learning in architecture.

Maggie West–Los Angeles-based artist from North Carolina known for her colorful photo and video art installations with plants and flowers that push the boundaries of traditional time lapse photography and exist at the intersection of documentation and fantasy.

Returning to the Festival, are Robert Bose, New York artist and mastermind behind the kinetic, quarter-mile long, Balloon ChainDo LaB, a Los Angeles-based creative team that has been delighting Festival-goers with their fantastical, interactive experiences and surprise performances for more than 20 years; Don Kennell, a Santa Fe, New Mexico-based artist whose monumental animal sculptures connect audiences through the exploration of nature and community; and NEWSUBSTANCE, a UK art and design studio known for performative, site-specific and temporal works around the world, including the stunning, seven-floor architecturally-inspired pavilion Spectra, which returns to the Festival for its fourth year.

Raices Cultura, a grassroots arts and culture nonprofit organization led by artist, educator and executive director Marnie L. Navarro, which is committed to art, culture and empowerment, will again recruit and mentor youth from the East Valley cities of Coachella, Indio, Mecca, Thermal and La Quinta to build an art installation for the festival campground based on their shared approach to theme and aesthetics.

The 5,000 square foot, immersive and inclusive Coachella Art Studios provides Festivalgoers an opportunity to explore their creativity and express themselves. Founded in 2008 by Los Angeles-based public art program specialist Sarah Scheideman, it is now run in collaboration with Coachella Valley artist Sofía Enriquez and a team of local creatives.

WHEN  

Held two consecutive weekends, Friday, April 14 – Sunday, April 16 and Friday, April 21 – Sunday, April 23, 2023

WHERE  

Empire Polo Club
81-800 Avenue 51, Indio, CA 92201