Desert Visionary

Merging elements of Light and Space art with his own architectural, site-specific aesthetic, Palm Desert artist PHILLIP K. SMITH III conjures spectrums of beauty from the land.

- Shana Nys Dambrot

A modern tabernacle rises from brown desert sand, glowing with an ethereal, science fiction-inflected pageant of color, field, and sky; a jackrabbit homestead wears a mirrored cloak that renders it almost invisible when the sun and horizon perform their choreography; an intimate dark room reveals itself infinitely larger on the inside, as suffuse colored light bends the rules and optics of physical space; a bunch of tripping hipsters get their minds totally blown by a temporary temple to cushy magic-hour light between sets at Coachella. All of this and more is the spectacular handiwork of sculptor and installation artist Phillip K. Smith III (aka PKS3), a denizen of the high desert whose unique relationship to architecture, the landscape, and the Light and Space movement has yielded some of the most intriguing interior installations, public sculptures, and ephemeral Land Art in recent memory. From Joshua Tree to Indio to Laguna Beach, and now as part of the inaugural edition of Desert X this winter, Smith has quickly become one of the most sought-after and emblematic artists of the current intertwined interests in art from the Los Angeles region, issues of the desert climate, and the resurgence of the land art genre in general.