Outdoor Desert Art Installations
Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Museum
This magnificent outdoor art exhibition took 15 years to create and install. The amount of effort, passion, and dedication that went into this unusual museum is unbelievable. The entire place was made by one person, Noah Purifoy. This is the most impressive and grandest of all of the outdoor desert art installations in Southern California. If you’re looking for an unusual thing to do some afternoon, check this out - especially if you like quirky, outsider art.
The outdoor museum is located a few minutes drive from Joshua Tree National Park. It contains dozens of art pieces from a single assemblage sculptures to a small castle. All of the art pieces are made from recycle objects and unwanted items like broken mannequins, old televisions, and plumbing fixtures - lots of plumbing fixtures. This art site is similar to East Jesus, another outdoor art site near the Salton Sea and Salvation Mountain.
East Jesus, in Slab City
If you’ve heard of Slab City, you know that this established colony of people in the desert land of Southern California offers visitors all kinds of unusual things. Located only a mile away from Salvation Mountain, in Slab City there's an outdoor art exhibition called East Jesus.
This expanding installation was started by a man named Charles Russell who took the trash that people dumped in this desert land and turned many of the objects into extraordinary works of art. About 80% of the art that you’ll see here was created by Russell himself; but as East Jesus has gained popularity, artists and creative people from around the country have come here to add their own work to the collection. The place is quite literally open for anyone from anywhere with the passion to create art to come over and create something. Visit, contribute art to the collection, be amazed.
Salvation Mountain
Salvation Mountain must be seen to be fully appreciated as those who have made the journey will attest. Its 50 foot height and 150 foot breadth is made totally of local adobe clay and donated paint and is truly unique in the United States and probably the world. From its Sea of Galilee at the bottom, to the big red heart in the middle, to the cross at the very top, the reoccurring theme of "Love" is everywhere at Salvation Mountain.
