Melissa Morgan Fine Art represented photographer Osceola Refetoff debuts his new, unseen body of work, Chromatopia, in the exhibition "Problematic Palms," at the Marks Art Center at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert, California.

Chromatopia features images of Coachella Valley landscapes and architecture in multispectral exposures, creating vivid hues that give the viewer a dream-like look into our desert community. Multispectral exposures combine infrared and visual spectrum light, using filters in front to the lens to control the wavelengths recorded, creating the color combinations in the camera. Refetoff says, “My work has long explored human interactions with the California desert. Palm Springs’ stunning midcentury architecture and exotic landscaping presents a fanciful transformation of this terrain, a vision made possible by water imported from distant sources.”

Curated by art critic Shana Nys Dambrot, "Problematic Palms" runs through December 15 with an artist's reception on Wednesday, November 15 from 4-6pm. Refetoff and Nys Dambrot will be in attendance. In her curatorial statement, Nys Dambrot says, “Osceola Refetoff’s work with multi-spectral exposures creates arresting infrared images of iconic Palm Springs neighborhoods’ architecture, landscape design, and encroaching wild nature. The impossibly rich chromatic character of the work is in conversation with both Pop art and the technology of scientific survey; the assertive beauty they express contains the unease of invisible color, an inverted dance of naturalism and surrealism, and the seeds of a deeper consideration about the viability of putting a town in the desert in the first place. Lovely, sparkling, water-intensive, manicured, natural, unnatural, otherworldly, seductive, subversive—paradisiacal and problematic."

The Chromatopia series is exhibited at the Marks Art Center at College of the Desert courtesy of MMFA. Upon conclusion of the exhibition, Refetoff's photographs will be on view in our gallery on El Paseo, Palm Desert, California.

About Osceola Refetoff

Osceola Refetoff is a photographer and photojournalist interested in documenting the relationship between people, the environment, space, and time. A graduate of New York University’s MFA Film Program, his work encompasses both traditional photographic techniques and “in camera” alternative processes including infrared and pinhole exposures. Underpinned by an evocative, cinematic understanding of how scale, point of view, architecture, and motion can express the essence of a given place, his images not only capture how something looks, but also how it feels to be there. Since 1995, his work has been widely exhibited by institutions including the San Diego Art Institute, Palm Springs Art Museum, and Museo Area Archeologica Arte Contemporaena (Italy), and regularly reviewed in publications such as Artillery, The Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post, and The British Journal of Photography.

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2023-2024 Exhibitions + Events

Anthony James Solo Exhibition
Currently on view through November 16, 2023
Location: Kellogg University Art Gallery; Cal Poly Pomona

Generation: Bruce Beasley + Anthony James
Reception: November 25 | 4-7pm
On View: November 25, 2023 - January 18, 2024

David Yarrow Inaugural Exhibition
Preview: November 25 | 4-7 pm
Reception: December 1 | 4-7 pm
On View: December 1, 2023 - January 18, 2024

Ryan Campbell
Reception December 7, 2024 | 4-6 pm
On View: November 1, 2023 - January 15, 2024
Location: The Penney at Desert Island Country Club; Rancho Mirage

Ohana: Ed Moses, Andy Moses + Kelly Berg
Reception: March 15, 2024 | 4-7 pm
On View: March 15, 2024 - April 20, 2024

Idyllwild Arts Academy Student Exhibition and Sale
Reception: May 3, 2024 | 4-7 pm

- First Friday's on El Paseo at MMFA -
3:30 - 7 pm | Dec 1, Jan 5, Feb 2*, Mar 1*, Apr 5*
*Concert in the Sculpture Garden by the Academy of Musical Performance (AMP) Student Band

2024 Art Fair Schedule

Intersect Palm Springs
February 8-11, 2024

Seattle Art Fair
July 25-28, 2024

Intersect Aspen
July 30-August 2, 2024