Sunnylands, 2024. Oil and acrylic on canvas. 200×200 cm (78×78 in.)

Sunnylands, 2024 takes its title from Sunnylands, the former Annenberg Estate in Rancho Mirage, California, a site of luxury and political history. The figures, originally inspired by those lounging by the pool of the Frey House—designed by desert modernist architect Albert Frey—are reimagined in a surreal, charged landscape. The sharp spikes of the Joshua trees evoke the surrounding desert, while the vibrant pink blossoms reference the magnolia tree gifted to the Annenbergs by President Richard Nixon in 1972, a cutting from a tree planted on the White House grounds by President Andrew Jackson nearly 200 years ago. Set against a bold red-striped backdrop, the figures’ green-toned bodies, poised yet detached, transform the scene into a collision of tropical luxury and desert starkness. This interplay of natural and architectural history, paired with the figures’ stillness, evokes themes of alienation, performance, and the uneasy beauty of curated environments. Christos Simatos