COMPLETE PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE:
The following panel discussions are a part of the Intersect Educational Series at Intersect Palm Springs Art + Design 2026 and are open to all ticket holders. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP, as seating is limited.

Fields of Vision: Abstract Art in Southern California with Sharrissa Iqbal

Friday, February 13, 2026
2 - 3 p.m.

Sharrissa Iqbal, art historian and curator, with special guest, Peter Frank, renowned art critic and curator, will examine the history of abstract artwork in Southern California since 1950, situating the region’s experimental practices within broader conversations around technical innovation and perceptual experience.

Iqbal special exhibition Radiant Space: Fields of Vision in Southern California debuts at Intersect Palm Springs 2026. 

Collector’s Roundtable

Friday, February 13, 2026
3 - 3:45 p.m. 

What makes a collection meaningful—and how do collectors decide what to live with, invest in, and champion? In this Collector’s Roundtable, Steven Biller moderates an engaging discussion on the art of collecting, from intuition and discovery to legacy and stewardship. Rod Lubeznik and other notable Coachella Valley art collectors. 

MODERNIST MAKERS: The Creative Forces Behind Mid-Century Modern — With Richard and Debra Hovel

Friday, February 13, 2026
4 - 5 p.m.

Explore three pivotal figures in the mid-century transformation of sculpture and craft into integral components of modernist architecture. Constantino Nivola, Peter Voulkos, and Stan Bitters each redefined the relationship between art, environment, and material, forging new connections between functional architecture and expressionist art. Their bold techniques and monumental forms challenged conventional distinctions between craft, fine art and building design, making surfaces come alive with texture, rhythm, and narrative.

Light, Technology & Art

Saturday, February 14, 2026 
2 - 2:45 p.m.

How is technology influencing contemporary art today? Peter Loforte moderates this panel, of artists including Mads Christensen, Donna Isham and Nikolas Soren Goodich and former Palm Springs Mayor and Current City Council Person, Jeffrey Bernstein. They will discuss the evolving relationship between technology and artistic practice—exploring how new tools and ideas are shaping the way art is created and experienced.

Art as Catalyst - A discussion with artist Paula Crown and Craig Drennen on creativity as a force for change

Saturday, February 14, 2026
3 - 3:45 p.m. 

Join renowned artist Paula Crown for a powerful conversation exploring how art intersects with activism, community, and global awareness. In this thought-provoking panel, Crown and Craig Drennen (artist and curator), will discuss how their creative practices have sparked dialogue and inspired action—from advocacy to reshaping social narratives.

The Work Continues with architect and artist Leo Marmol

Saturday, February 14, 2026
4 - 5 p.m. 

Leo Marmol celebrates craft as a way of living deliberately in a rapidly accelerating world. As technology increasingly mediates how we live and relate to one another, and instability becomes part of everyday life, he understands craft as play, a process rather than an end product. Tracing the evolution of Marmol Radziner’s design-build ethos alongside decades spent painting, Marmol contends that art, architecture, and design are not separate disciplines but expressions of a single creative impulse. Situated in the unique context of Palm Springs, this presentation explores the desert as a meeting ground between Modernist ideals and Outsider Art traditions. Marmol looks to the desert as a teacher of patience and restraint, informed by his firm’s extensive Modernist restoration work, new homes, and his own abstract paintings in dialogue with the landscape.

Invoking the Bauhaus belief in thinking through making and the myth of Sisyphus as articulated by Albert Camus, Marmol reflects on the human desire for clarity in a world that resists resolution. For Camus, the “absurd” is not despair, but the tension between our need for understanding and the absence of any grand plan or final explanation. Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder uphill, we continue the work knowing it will never be finished. No single artwork or building can resolve this condition, but that failure does not diminish their value. Instead, Marmol frames creative practice as an ongoing commitment: a willingness to begin again, and to find meaning not in arrival, but in return. The Work Continues asks what art can offer as artificial intelligence grows more powerful and complex, and suggests that the imperfect human act of making matters now more than ever.

Marilyn and America in the 60’s - A conversation with the artist Lawrence Schiller’s and Palm Spring’s Steven Biller 

Sunday, February 15, 2026 
3 - 4 p.m. 

Marilyn and America in the 60’s brings together artist Lawrence Schiller and Palm Springs’ Steven Biller for a timely conversation on image-making, celebrity, and cultural memory during one of America’s most transformative decades. Through Schiller’s firsthand experiences and iconic lens, the panel explores Marilyn Monroe as both muse and myth—revealing how her image reflected (and shaped) the era’s shifting ideals of glamour, power, and identity.

3:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion
3:30 p.m. | Q&A
3:45 p.m. | Book Signing

Tickets for Intersect Palm Springs Art + Design Fair 2026 are now on sale:
All Access passes, Multi-Day passes and Individual Day passes are now on sale and can be purchased here.