Opening Reception: Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 | 5–7 p.m. | Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Opening this fall, The Desert Breathes Slowly at Melissa Morgan Fine Art invites viewers into a dialogue between painting, sculpture and landscape. The exhibition features cold wax and oil paintings by architect and artist Leo Marmol, alongside ceramic works by Nobuhito Nishigawara and bronze figures by Curt Brill. Together, the artists’ works explore the desert’s vastness and intimacy, forming a contemplative exchange across mediums.
For Marmol, an acclaimed architect and co-founder of the award-winning design-build firm Marmol Radziner, the desert has long been a source of creative and emotional resonance. His Desert Paintings—which began as an exploration of wildflower blooms in Borrego Springs—have evolved into layered studies of light, shadow and the tactile qualities of the landscape. Working in oil and cold wax, Marmol creates abstractions that convey both structure and atmosphere, evoking what he calls “the ephemeral and eternal aspects of the desert’s ancient, nameless power.”
“Through the dual lens of architect and artist, Marmol’s paintings reveal a sensitivity to structure, rhythm and balance shaped by his architectural practice,” said gallery director Melissa Morgan. “His use of color and form becomes a quiet framework for something vast, immaterial and profoundly powerful.”
A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a member of the Interior Design Hall of Fame, Marmol has helped define contemporary design through his firm’s restoration of iconic modernist structures, including Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs. His practice has been recognized with numerous AIA and ASLA awards and has been listed in Architectural Digest’s AD100 for ten consecutive years, including 2025.
Marmol began painting while studying architecture and philosophy at California Polytechnic State University, using art as a way to navigate creative and emotional challenges. “Painting became a refuge,” he said. “It allowed me to explore emotions and ideas that architecture alone couldn’t express.”
The exhibition opens with a public reception on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert.
Opening Reception
Friday, Oct. 17, 2025 | 5–7 p.m.
Melissa Morgan Fine Art
73-660 El Paseo, Palm Desert, CA 92260
Free and open to the public
About Leo Marmol
Leo Marmol is a Los Angeles–based artist and architect known for his leadership in architecture and his expanding fine art practice. As co-founder of Marmol Radziner, he has advanced a holistic design approach integrating architecture, construction and landscape. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Wallpaper, and Interior Design magazine. As a painter, Marmol explores abstraction and identity through oil and cold wax, with exhibitions including Los Colores de Assimilation and recent presentations at The Landing and Melissa Morgan Fine Art.
Instagram: @leonardo_e_marmol
