Oct 21, 2026

An Ecology of Exchange residency

An Ecology of Exchange, an artist residency in Joshua Tree.

Artist E. Mark Gross became one of the first participants in a new Joshua Tree residency called An Ecology of Exchange, created by filmmaker and choreographer Jenifer Yeuroukis.

Gross has followed an unusual path—from law and game design in New York to an art practice based partly in the Philippines. In the Mojave Desert, he found the landscape’s openness, color, negative space, and slower rhythms beginning to enter his abstract work.

When Jennifer joins us in conversation, the discussion expands beyond art and residency programs into something deeper: the relationship between art and science, why curiosity matters, what creativity does for us, the importance of stillness, and our increasingly urgent need for genuine human connection.

We also talk about story, nature, the body, the strange difficulty of knowing when a work of art is finished—and why Joshua Tree may reveal itself only to people willing to stay long enough to notice.