PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (December 16, 2016) – Art Palm Springs is proud to announce Lita Albuquerque, a pioneering artist and leader of California’s Light and Space art movement in the 1970s, as its 2017 Artist of the Year.

Coinciding with Presidents’ Day Weekend, Art Palm Springs brings together more than 60 galleries from the U.S., South America and Europe, along with hundreds of artists from around the globe to the Palm Springs Convention Center February 16 through 19, 2017. Represented at the Fair by Peter Blake Gallery (Laguna Beach, Calif.), Albuquerque joins the ranks of past Art Palm Springs Artist of the Year honorees including Judy Chicago, Mel Ramos, Jennifer Bartlett, Fletcher Benton and Larry Bell.
 
“We are so pleased to have Lita Albuquerque as the 2017 Artist of the Year,” said Donna Davies, Vice President of the Art Group for Urban Expositions, producer of Art Palm Springs. “The scope of her work is inspiring, as is her dedication to imparting her knowledge to the next generation of artists as a member of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where she has been on the faculty for more than 20 years.”
 

"Palm Springs with its closeness to Los Angeles and Joshua Tree is a place that I go to for inspiration, motivation and solitude. Standing in the presence of the mountains, there, in the middle of the desert, everything drops out but the silence, and I can begin to listen. That listening is the beginning of inspiration, from one form of expression of the desert, through my body, to the canvas or field or object," said Lita Albuquerque, Artist of the Year Honoree. "Getting this award here means a lot - amidst the close relationships I have developed over the years within the community as well as with my relationship to the land itself."  
From far-flung places such as Antarctica to the Great Pyramids in the deserts of Egypt or Death Valley in the American Southwest, Albuquerque uses the expansive natural backgrounds for her large-scale installations and ephemeral works. She is known as an environmental artist, painter and sculptor who brings together the realities of time and space to a human scale through her unique visual language.

Throughout her career, Albuquerque has garnered acclaim for her work which continually questions the elemental concepts of cosmology and everyday culture. Thoughtful and imaginative, Albuquerque uses these elemental concepts as “a living, functional cosmology for 21st century culture within public consciousness.”
 
Her works include her pivotal 1980 installation, The Washington Monument Project, featured as part of the International Sculptural Conference, which led to commissions at major sites around the world including the Great Pyramids as the U.S. representative for the Cairo Biennale, including Sol Star, which won the Cairo Biennale Prize.

Her commissioned works can be seen at such diverse locations as Gannett Publishers, McLean, Virginia; The Evo De Concini Federal Courthouse, Tucson, Arizona; Palos Verdes Central Library, Palos Verdes, California; Koll/Obayashi Corporation, Los Angeles; Cerritos Public Library, Cerritos, California; Tochigi Prefecture Health Center, Kanto Region, Japan; Saitama Guest Center, Saitama, Tokyo; and the Library at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. These are in addition to her works that are on display in museums around the world, including the Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, California; The Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; The Whitney Museum of Art, New York City; The Getty Trust; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
 
Albuquerque will receive the Artist of the Year Award during Art Palm Springs taking place February 16-19, 2017. Arts Patron of the Year Award will be presented to Donna MacMillan during the Opening Night Celebration February 16, 2017. Art Palm Springs takes place at the Palm Springs Convention Center.  Tickets and a complete schedule for Art Palm Springs are available on the website at www.art-palmsprings.com.

As the list of Art Palm Springs participating galleries continues to grow, the initial group of galleries committed to participate in the 2017 art fair includes: 
57 Projects (Los Angeles, California)
Adamar Fine Arts (Miami, Florida)
Addison Rowe Fine Art (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Artspace Warehouse (Los Angles, California)
Blue Rain Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Bruce Lurie Gallery (Los Angeles, California)
C. Grimaldis Gallery (Baltimore, Maryland)
Cassera Arts Premiers (Camano Island, Washington)
Charlotte Jackson Fine Art (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Chiaroscuro/Gerbert Contemporary (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Christopher Martin Gallery (Aspen, Colorado)
CMay Gallery (West Hollywood, California)
The Cynthia Corbett Gallery (London, United Kingdom)
DECORAZONgallery (London, United Kingdom)
Galeria Moro (Maracaibo, Venezuela)
Gallery K.A.G. (Annapolis, Maryland)
Garis & Hahn (Los Angeles, California)
George Billis Gallery (New York, New York)
HOHMANN (Palm Desert, California)
J. Willott Gallery (Palm Desert, California)
Jai & Jai Gallery (Los Angeles, California)
Jane Kahan Gallery (New York, New York)
Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art (Los Angeles, California)
Jorge Mendez Gallery (Palm Springs, California)
Kidder + Smith (Boston, Massachusetts)
Lassiter Fine Art (Birmingham, Alabama)
Maria Elena Kravetz Gallery (Cordoba, Argentina)
Michalopoulos Gallery (New Orleans, Louisiana)
Myers Kovich (Laguna Beach, California)
NanHai Art (Millbrae, California)
Okay Spark (Norfolk, Virginia)
Peter Blake Gallery (Laguna Beach, California)
Peters Projects (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
photo-eye Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Pushkin Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery (New York, New York)
Richard Levy Gallery (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Scott White Contemporary Art (San Diego, California)
Sensate Gallery              
TAI Modern Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
ten|Contemporary (Grass Valley, California)
Throckmorton Fine Art (New York, New York)
Tim Yarger Fine Art (Beverly Hills, California)
Tom Ross Gallery (Palm Springs, California)
William Havu Gallery (Denver, Colorado)
William Siegal Gallery (Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Winston Wächter Fine Art (Seattle, Washington)
 

Art Palm Springs is owned by Atlanta-based Urban Expositions, which produces Art Aspen, Art Hamptons, Houston Art Fair, Art Palm Springs, and the Sculpture Objects Functional Art and Design (SOFA) Fair in Chicago. All art fairs are presented by galleries from around the world exhibiting modern and contemporary art in a variety of media including painting, photography, sculpture, and mixed-media. 
For more information about Urban Expositions’ art and design fairs, visit the following websites:
Art Hamptons | www.arthamptons.com
Art Aspen | www.art-aspen.com
Houston Art Fair | www.houstonartfair.com
SOFA CHICAGO | www.sofaexpo.com
Art Palm Springs | www.art-palmsprings.com
 
About Urban Expositions
Based in Kennesaw, GA, and founded in 1995, Urban Expositions produces and manages a portfolio of 40 events. Urban serves seven industry sectors including Gift, Souvenir, Art, Aviation, Foodservice, Pet and Gaming. Urban also produces Airport Revenue News, a publication focused on the airport concession industry. Urban has offices in Shelton, CT and Boca Raton, FL, and is represented by employees in California, Colorado and Illinois. www.urban-expo.com
 
About Clarion Events Clarion Events can trace its roots back to 1947 and takes great pride in being one of the oldest independent event organizers in the UK. The teams at Clarion create uniquely effective and stimulating environments that can serve as a platform to build businesses, enhance customer relationships and accelerate product awareness. More recently the firm has developed an international portfolio of brands and now delivers more than 200 events in over 20 countries.  www.clarionevents.com and www.olympia-art-antiques.com