C.YV 26-27 Exhibition Season

September 5, 2026 through May 30, 2027

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Compound is pleased to present its 2026–27 Exhibition Season, beginning Saturday, September 5, 2026. Through May 2027, four group and solo exhibitions will feature a mix of locally-based and visiting artists in conversation around various themes: abstract geometries, human and natural connections, and sculpture and performance.

‘Embodiments’ with Ron Therrio
September 5–27, 2026

Ron Therrio is a creator and seeker. An avid surfer and musician, Therrio's life of learning has taken shape in Southern California’s industrial landscape in carpentry, petroleum refineries, chemical plants and shipyards, and as a sculptor for film and architecture, graphic artist, draftsman, and model-maker. For Therrio, the limitation of materials is where creativity happens: the demand for focus facilitates a meditative process, a means of visioning and accessing alternate realities and deeper truths. The artist’s process and hand-work is visible in carved surfaces and textures. They prompt reflection on the connections between the disciplined focus of work and the pursuit of enlightenment. 

Embodiments draws on associations, symbolism, graphic imagery, texture, and physical form in which each viewer is free to build their own narrative. Striations of wood grain suggest the deep time of geology. His abstract figures evoke other-than-human spirits, talismans, and totems. Multilayered storylines arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned.

Special Programming:

• Saturday, September 5, 4–8pm: Opening Reception 
• Sunday, September 13, 3pm: Artist Walkthrough

‘Abstract Geometries’ with Christopher Ronk, DA·MA and Jenene Nagy
November 7, 2026–January 3, 2027

“Colors answer feeling in man; shapes answer thought; and motion answers will." —John Sterling, 19th century Scottish Author

In Abstract Geometries, symbols and colors are buoyant and pronounced. More than mere marks on a surface, they are living objects that affect the world in which they exist and the environment in which they hang, and equally, their witness. Across the selected works of Christopher Ronk, Jenene Nagy, and DA·MA, particular canvases and mark-making techniques build tension around the articulation of a line or shape, whether energetically haphazard, meticulously drawn, or repeated across canvases. When pared back, the elements comprising a painting suddenly become more present. Each choice contains a question, and the answers begin to tell a story about the individuals and the broader unknowns of the universe, with some work alluding to natural landscapes and other pieces to the mathematics inherent in familiar calligraphies of shape and sequence.

Special Programming:

• Saturday, November 7, 4–8pm: Opening Reception
• Group Artist Talk, Date + Time TBA
• Drawing Workshop with Caroline Partamian, Date + Time TBA

‘In the Scheme of Things’ Group Show with Dorene Quinn, Adriana Lopez-Ospina, SR Lejeune, Reeyna Daniel 
January 23–March 21, 2027

“I don’t know what ‘human nature’ is. Maybe leaving descriptions of what we wipe out is part of human nature.” —Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin

In the Scheme of Things explores the interconnectedness of humanity and nature, exploring our relationships to ecology, culture, and construction. Here, we find moments where the line between “human/nature” is seamless and free-flowing, and others where it is prickly and rocky.

Artists Dorene Quinn, Adriana Lopez-Ospina, SR Lejeune, and Reeyna Daniel closely observe eco-corporeal forms and their extensions. At first it may be unclear: what is made by the hand of a human and what is made by the hand of nature? Are they necessarily different, or as part of nature, are we one and the same? Whether using raw material or drawing from their observation of the natural world, these artists encourage us to embrace humanity’s fragility and resilience as natural beings in the Anthropocene era, inviting closer contemplation of our obligations to the place and time we inhabit.

Special Programming:

• Saturday, January 23, 5–9pm: Opening Reception
• Additional Programming TBA

‘Everyone is Late to the Ruins’ with Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs
April 3–May 30, 2027

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs strives toward speculative mythology, a term the artist coined to describe developing the myth-based foundations of an imagined future and their paraphernalia — hymns, relics, costumes, instruments, rites, and rituals. Her interdisciplinary practice incorporates sound, sculpture, scent, and site-specific collective performance. Carolyn’s eye and ear for compelling imagery, sound, and her gift of storytelling beyond the conventions of the 3-act narrative comes together in Everyone is Late to the Ruins, an exhibition made of performance, film and sculpture, combined as installations. The show incorporates desert material: local sand, clay, and the artist herself.

Special Programming

• Saturday, April 3, 6–10pm: Opening Reception
• Performance, Date + Time TBA
• Community Choir, Date + Time TBA

About Compound YV

Compound YV Foundation is a nonprofit artist-run gallery in Yucca Valley, in California's high desert, dedicated to facilitating connection and fostering public dialogue through the arts. Founded in 2018, Compound presents four exhibitions annually — in Fall, Winter, and Spring — plus more experimental, artist-led programming each summer and throughout the year, alongside free, low-cost, and donation-based workshops, performances, artist talks, exhibition walkthroughs, and our podcast, Art Personals. Donations to our Artists Fund directly support artist stipends covering labor, time, and materials, while our Recurrence Fund sustains our operations and gallery hours where our staff of early- and mid-career artists gain direct operational and curatorial experience.

Gallery Hours: Friday–Sunday 12–5p and by appointment
Location: 55379 29 Palms Highway, Yucca Valley, CA 92284
Website: www.compoundyv.com
Instagram: @compoundyv