High Desert Museum | July 18-October 2, 2026 | Bend, OR

Wide Open Spaces

Art in the West returns to the High Desert Museum with 130 artworks that celebrate the region’s beauty.

By Sarah Gianelli

Art in the West is an annual exhibition and auction that pays tribute to the people, wildlife, landscapes, cultures and history of the High Desert, a region that stretches from the eastern slope of the Cascades and Sierras to the Rockies. The show is presented by the High Desert Museum, appropriately located in Bend, Oregon, where the green, forested Cascade Mountain range gives way to the arid, wide-open spaces of the Pacific Northwest’s unique desert.

Arturo Garcia, Nine Chiefs, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

On Saturday, July 18, Art in the West opens with the unveiling of roughly 130 artworks, selected from 550 submissions, a number that has been growing exponentially each year. The juried works best represent the region through a wide range of mediums and genres that include landscapes, bronzes, photography, innovative works in fiber and encaustic and more. The works shift from traditional to contemporary.

“The diverse artistry that continues to captivate our community in this exhibition, and the 2026 Art in the West collection in particular, is exceptional,” says the museum’s executive director Dana Whitelaw. “These pieces reveal fresh, unique perspectives of the High Desert, challenging us to see the region’s landscapes and cultures through a modern lens and deepening our collective appreciation for the West.”

Peter Dawson, Infinity #3363, Eastern Oregon, photograph, 24 x 36 in.

Visitors will find works by renowned artist Frank Buffalo Hyde, whose artwork Buffalo Fields Forever was the Curator’s Choice award winner in 2025, and Miguel Almeida, whose vibrant works are the subject of the museum’s current exhibition Las Manos que dan de Comer.

Other participating artists include Indigenous artists Ellen Taylor and Natalie Kirk; local favorites Stuart Breidenstein, Judy Hoiness and Peter Dawson; and landscape artists Jake Trujillo, Lindsay Gilmore and Taylor Manoles, to name a few.

Each year, the exhibition honors two artists with the Jury’s Choice and Curator’s Choice awards. This year’s Jury’s Choice winner is Dawson for his piece Infinity #3363, Eastern Oregon,a photograph that captures an expansive dramatic sky over a vast plateau with a mesa on the distant horizon.

Frank Buffalo Hyde, GLHF - How the west was won #2, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in.

The 2026 Curator’s Choice award went to Indigenous basketry artist Natalie Kirk (Warm Springs) for her piece Yamash in Thunderbird of Nch’I Wana. Made of yarn, smoked elk hide and seed beads, the colorful basket depicts the thunderbird against a bright blue sky.

The exhibition and online auction both launch on July 18, with auction proceeds benefiting the artists and the High Desert Museum’s educational programs. The event and bidding concludes on October 2 with the Art in the West Closing Party, an evening of live demonstrations, food and drink, and the opportunity to mingle with participating artists and learn more about their work.