Art Exhibition Speaks for the Salton Sea By Steven Biller

On March 21, The Salton Sea: Lost in Paradise, an exhibition featuring 10 artists whose work focuses on the sea, opens at the Marks Art Center at College of the Desert in Palm Desert. The show continues through May 1, 2016.

“This exhibition is not only a tribute to the artists who have found inspiration in the Salton Sea, it is a tribute to the endurance of the sea itself, and to the people who are dedicated to preserving it,” says the show’s curator, Deborah Martin, who’s also one of the artists.

The exhibition covers a variety of media, including photographic works by Bill Leigh Brewer, Doron Gazit, Christopher Landis, Joan Myers, Kim Stringfellow, and Victory Tischler-Blue. Andrew Dickson, Mary Austin-Klein, and Eric Merrell will show new landscape paintings, including Merrell’s sea-inspired nocturnes, while Martin exhibits work from her series “The Slabs: The Last Free Place in America.” La Quinta Arts Foundation scholarship recipient Cristopher Cichocki has a video work in the exhibition alongside sculpture by Ashley Hagen and Aili Schmeltz. There’s also a site-specific installation by Los Angles-based Thinh Nguyen, who’ll also present a durational performance, “From Dawn to Dust,” on April 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. “I’m mourning the rise and desolation of the area’s abandonment, and I’m praying for its fate,” he says. “If nothing is done, it could lead to a disastrous dust bowl and pollution.”