PALM SPRINGS, CALIF.- Palm Springs Art Museum announces the appointment of César García-Alvarez as Q+ Art Curator-at-Large. García-Alvarez will lead the next two-year curatorial rotation of Q+ Art, the museum’s initiative dedicated to advancing the recognition of LGBTQ+ artists and art histories through exhibitions, programs, collection building, community engagement, and education.

Founded in 2023, Q+ Art champions the often-underrecognized contributions of LGBTQ+ artists and is the only program of its kind dedicated to queer art and artists from within a general art museum. Rooted in Palm Springs’ significance as a center for LGBTQ+ culture in the United States and the contributions of the region’s queer community, the initiative brings queer artists, histories, and perspectives into the museum’s exhibitions, collection, programs, and broader institutional work.

“César is no stranger to Q+ Art. Last year, he joined us in celebrating 2025–26 Q+ Art Awardee Nick Cave, leading a conversation with the artist that brought his distinctive curatorial perspective to our community,” said Christine Vendredi, JoAnn McGrath Executive Director and Chief Curator of Palm Springs Art Museum. “We are thrilled to welcome César in this new role. His approach to the collection creates new connections between artists, histories, and ideas, while opening up new possibilities for how we understand and present queer art.”

A Mexican-born curator and writer, García-Alvarez has built a curatorial practice focused on reimagining how exhibitions engage audiences with contemporary art and culture. He begins his tenure at Palm Springs Art Museum with (Enter Pirates.), a new rotation in the Montgomery Gallery, a space dedicated exclusively to Q+ Art, opening Saturday, September 19, 2026. Drawn primarily from the museum’s permanent collection, (Enter Pirates.) takes its title from a stage direction in Shakespeare’s Pericles, when a group of pirates abruptly interrupts the action and sends the story in an unexpected direction. The works create disruptions of their own, using familiar subjects including beauty, landscape, the body, visibility, labor, and performance to challenge assumptions about what these subjects mean and how they are experienced.

Rather than defining queer art solely through the identities of its makers, (Enter Pirates.) considers the broader relationships, influences, and exchanges that have shaped queer art history. Unfolding in three rotating acts over the course of a year, the presentation brings works from the museum’s collection into conversation with select loans, promised gifts, and new acquisitions. As works enter and leave the galleries, new relationships emerge, offering fresh possibilities for how the collection can grow and what queer art itself can encompass.

“I’m deeply honored to help shape an initiative that feels both urgent and genuinely singular. Q+ Art is an opportunity to think expansively about what queer art can be and to recover overlooked histories, complicate the ones we think we know, and create unexpected relationships between artists, artworks, and audiences,” said García-Alvarez. “At a moment when so much of our world seems invested in narrowing how we understand one another, I’m interested in what a museum can do by moving in the other direction, making room for complexity, discovery, and possibility.”

García-Alvarez is the founding Executive & Artistic Director of The Mistake Room (TMR) in Los Angeles, where he has organized exhibitions, artist projects, and research-driven group presentations focused on contemporary art and culture. He previously served as Associate Director and Senior Curator at LAXART and has held curatorial roles with projects including the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2012, the 13th International Cairo Biennale, TBA21–Academy’s The Current, and Desert X 2021 in the Coachella Valley. He also contributes to exhibition catalogues and publications, has held visiting teaching appointments, and has served on advisory committees, juries, and panels for museums, foundations, universities, and arts organizations. He lives and works in Los Angeles.

Palm Springs Art Museum established Q+ Art with a model of rotating two-year Curator-at-Large appointments, bringing new curatorial perspectives and scholarship to the initiative over time. García-Alvarez succeeds David Evans Frantz, who served as Q+ Art Curator-at-Large from 2024 to 2026.