Located on the south side of Ramon Road and Gene Autry, SOTA (South of the Airport) is an emerging, exciting arts district. It captures the imagination and fuels the creative spirit of artists and art enthusiasts alike. This dynamic cultural hub boasts an array of modern and innovative art studios where talented artists explore their craft with boundless passion and creativity.
In this burgeoning art district, art and design are flourishing, captivating minds and inspiring collaboration, ultimately shaping the cultural fabric of our city in remarkable ways.
Craig Mann's Mr. Mann's Design Gallery
4501 E Sunny Dunes Road
Mr. Craig Mann is an accomplished fine arts painter who won contests at a young age. He is also a professionally trained and educated interior designer with a decade of satisfied clients in California, Arizona, and Colorado. He listens carefully to clients’ needs to create a living space or a piece of fine art that complements it. For fine art, he can paint in the impressionistic, realistic, or abstract styles. For interior design, he can use midcentury modern, traditional, transitional, or modern approaches, or a combination of all.
Call 760-409-6388 to make an appointment.
Deb Grupe
4625 E Sunny Dunes Road
Debi Grupe’s work spans drawing, monotype printmaking, sculpture, photography, and painting, all rooted in an intuitive connection to everyday human emotion. She moved beyond printmaking to explore mixed media, inspired by the abstract artists of the 1950s–70s and her own passion for repurposing materials. Using found objects, magazine imagery, fabrics, and other unexpected elements, she creates pieces that celebrate unusual pairings and personal interpretation. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the United States, Australia, and Kuwait, and appears in private collections worldwide, as well as in Vancouver’s Holt Renfrew, the Vancouver Law Courts, Vancouver Television’s greenroom, and film and TV productions including X‑Men 2 and Fantastic Four. Visit her website.
Jeremy Novy
4627 East Sunny Dunes Road
Jeremy Novy is a street artist known for his koi fish stencils and his support for gay activism. Novy’s stencil art is remarkably complex for its compositional simplicity. A champion of LGBTQ iconography, he often depicts underrepresented subjects to promote awareness and acceptance of multiplicity and modern identity.
Contact him at J_novy@hotmail.com for an appointment.
Arron Buttram
4635 E Sunny Dunes Road
Arron Buttram creates process-driven abstract paintings that explore shape, balance, texture, and rhythm through layering and response. Working intuitively, he builds compositions that evolve over time, revealing traces of decisions, revisions, and discovery. His work balances geometric structure with organic movement, creating spaces where order and spontaneity coexist.
Arron maintains a private studio in the Palm Springs SOTA Art District, which is open during various citywide and district events and available for visits by appointment. For the past three years, he has been a featured artist at Janssen Artspace in downtown Palm Springs, where visitors can view a selection of his work year-round. To view additional work, receive studio and event updates, or inquire about scheduling a studio visit, follow Arron on Instagram at @arron_buttram_art.
Studio 9 - Dara Altobelli
4637 E. Sunny Dunes Rd
Dara Altobelli is an abstract expressionist and contemporary painter at Studio 9. She creates statement pieces for modern-living collectors and designers.
She is available by appointment at her studio; call 510.735.7274.
Other SOTA Arts District artists include Arron Buttram, Tracy Boyd, and Morgan Britt.
David Marvel
703 S. Williams Road
David Marvel is a self-taught oil painter and artist from the East Coast. His twenties were spent in the South Beach Miami art scene of the 1990s, where he came into his own as a drag performer. He was then forced to confront some difficult situations in his life. During this period, he found reprieve in painting, a meditative escape that reconnected him to his spirit.
Before moving to the desert, where he would commit to developing as a painter, he had a successful career as a makeup artist in LA.
Tracy Boyd
705 S. Williams Road
Tracy Boyd is a large-scale, expressive figurative painter whose artwork delves into what she believes is happening in the world at this moment: distractions. We are bombarded with information often meant to keep us from truly seeing or understanding what is really happening. In a similar fashion, she uses conflicting imagery—cars, buildings, and animals in motion—paired with graphical elements and bold colors. As you continue to view her work, new meaning strikes you. Action leaps off the canvas in an engaging way, impressing a unique distraction onto each viewer. Her work varies in size from 3 ft to 10 ft.
Her original and fearless style of painting can be attributed to her story of independence, determination, risk-taking, and a desire to learn through life experiences. Her strong work ethic and self-sufficiency continue to motivate her, driving her to achieve goals, challenge her thinking and emotions, and break new ground.
Morgan Britt - White Rabbit Studio and Gallery
707 S. Williams Road
Morgan Britt is a fine-art ceramicist with over 40 years of artistic practice. Trained under legendary figures including Paul Soldner, Tom Coleman, and Peter King, she has produced work spanning sculptural ceramics, architectural commissions, and figurative pieces that embody what she calls "embodied knowing" —figures that portray motion and emotion through form and function.
After decades of teaching, exhibiting in galleries across California, and running her own studio in Northern California, Morgan landed in the desert in 2020 and found her people. She has since become an active presence in the Palm Springs arts community through Desert Open Studios, Modernism Week, and local nonprofits.
White Rabbit will showcase artwork by many artists at White Rabbit Studio and Gallery, including Morgan's, and is planning to host classes for teens only and periodic visiting-artist workshops for all ages in early 2027.
Misty Carey
4629 E. Sunny Dunes Road
The subjects of her paintings are the things she wants to focus on. Misty Carey follows magic pathways to divine consciousness and paints spiritual symbols. She thinks about things that lighten my own heart or make her laugh, so she paints people, places, landscapes, and things she enjoys, including cats.
Silica Studios
752 S. Williams Road
Silica Studios is a clay-firing studio for artists, with dedicated spaces for creating, glazing, and firing ceramic artworks. Silica Studios provides access to specialized equipment and facilities for the ceramic process.
Artists can access various tools such as pottery wheels, hand-building stations, and kilns. Many of their pottery pieces can be purchased in the Silica Studios gallery.
Hours:
- Monday - Friday, 8 am - 4 pm.
- Saturday, 8 am - 2 pm
- Closed Sunday.
You may also call for an appointment at 760-325-7007
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