This California-based biennial is back for its third edition, curated by Neville Wakefield and co-curated by the Mexican director of The Mistake Room, César García-Alvarez. The theme this year is desert narratives, but the show looks past the landscape’s homogeneity and delves into its historical significance. Over centuries, the desert has been a site of migration, water exploitation, and racial demarcations, as well as a subject of myth. This year’s lineup includes 13 artists, among them Judy Chicago, Alicja Kwade, Oscar Murillo, and Christopher Myers. Some collaborated with local residents, others played with painting and light, and still others have created vast geological sculptures that break from and yet fit into the striking landscape. —E.C.