Fast forward to the year 2036, when escapist playgrounds—known as Wyldlands—populate the Sonoran Desert. This is the alternate universe of the installation artist Doug Meyer, a world where “WyldLands” are constructed as vacation getaways from wave-after-wave of future pandemics and lockdowns. The playgrounds are folklorish, inspired by Roman Caligula’s compound Horti Lamiani and Francois Racine de Monville’s Désert de Retz. In this dystopian-utopian exhibition, viewers are greeted with a timeline of future events, followed by magical sculptures and ephemera that lift the spirits. —E.C.

Doug Meyer: Wyldlands
Daniel Cooney Fine Art
508 W 26th St, New York, NY 10001
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