About Desert X

Desert X may have a brief history, but its impact is profound. The organisation was founded out of a passion for contemporary art and its power to foster cross-cultural dialogue, while also engaging artists and audiences who feel confined by the traditional spaces of museums and galleries. From the start, its mission has been bold: to present curated exhibitions of site-specific works by international artists that celebrate the desert landscape, while offering visual commentary on issues of global relevance.

Since its inception, Desert X has encouraged its audience to embrace adventure, explore with curiosity, and connect with the art in a deeper, emotional, historical, and social context—not just its physical form.

The inaugural Desert X in 2017 featured 16 artists whose works were scattered across the Coachella Valley, from Whitewater Preserve to Coachella. The exhibition was met with critical acclaim, and since then, four biennial exhibitions have been held, attracting over 1.7 million visitors. Expanding globally, Desert X has taken its exhibitions beyond the U.S. since 2020, including the establishment of Desert X AlUla in Saudi Arabia, where artists from across the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. came together to create art in the desert.

About Jenny Gil

Jenny Gil Schmitz is a Spanish-American arts advocate who has been holding leadership positions in museum and public arts organisations for over 15 years.

Prior to her current position as Executive Director at Desert X, Jenny Gil was Director of Exhibitions at Faena Art, in Miami and Buenos Aires where she oversaw the inaugural public exhibition programs of the OMA / Rem Koolhaas Faena Forum in
Miami Beach. She had been Executive Director of ICOM's International Committee of Contemporary and Modern Art Museums (CIMAM) in Barcelona, Spain, from 2011 until 2015 where she created the Museum Watch program and was Founder and Director of Ninetofive, a contemporary art production bureau in Barcelona from 2008 to 2015 where she produced award-winning and critically acclaimed international exhibitions.

Jenny Gil holds a Masters in Philosophy by the Université Paris-Sorbonne and a
Masters in Fine Arts by the Ecole Supérieure Nationale de la Photographie, Arles,
France. She has contributed to international art publications, including Cahiers du
Cinéma, Madrid; La Vanguardia, Barcelona, Papers d’Art, Girona and Arte al Dia,
Miami. Jenny in based in the Coachella Valley where she lives with her husband and
their son.