La Quinta Art Celebration SPRING 2026: The Award Winners

From a driftwood sculptor's stunning debut to a city's permanent collection - meet this year's winners

Best of Show: Jeffro Uitto

Sculptor Jeffro Uitto made his La Quinta debut this spring and walked away with the highest honor.

Working from the Pacific Northwest coast, Uitto rescues driftwood shaped by years of ocean currents and assembles it - piece by piece - into life-sized animal sculptures. Horses, eagles, whales. Each one built from hundreds of individual fragments that fit together like nature's own puzzle.

A first-time exhibitor taking Best of Show is no small feat - and doing it with material pulled from the beach makes it all the more remarkable.

Best of Category

Winners came from coast to coast - Ohio to California, Florida to Washington, New York to Tennessee:

2D Mixed Media & Digital Art - Cindy Olmes, Ohio

3D Mixed Media - Ryan Kvande, California

Ceramics - Monica Prado, California

Drawing, Pastel & Printmaking - Sandra Meyer, California

Fiber - Selma Karaca, New York

Glass - Kirk Miller, Florida

Jewelry - Rosario & Enrique Garcia, Florida

Painting - Diego Fidelis Guimaraes, Washington

Photography - Jason Bishop, Illinois

Sculpture - Nicholas Ricaurte, Tennessee

Wood - Tor Erickson, California

Award of Merit

2D Mixed Media & Digital Art - Marjolyn van der Hart, Toronto, Canada

Glass - Jesse Kelly, California

Jewelry - Michael Boyd, Colorado

Painting - Jenny Stewart, Arizona

La Quinta Purchase Award

Guioumme and Doug Merskin, whose work has been acquired for the city's permanent collection.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to everyone who came out. Great crowds and great art - we couldn't ask for more!

Next Up: Celebration ENCORE 2026

Already missing it? So are we.

Celebration ENCORE 2026 returns to the La Quinta Civic Center Campus on November 12-15, 2026.

Sign up to be the first to hear when tickets go live.

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