Phoenix Art Museum is celebrating one of Arizona’s most beloved painters with a show that feels like stepping inside his working studio. Ed Mell: In the Studio, on view September 26, 2026 through April 11, 2027 in the Ballinger Wing’s Woodyard Gallery, brings together oil studies, sketches and final paintings by the Phoenix-born artist.
Mell was part of Arizona’s arts community for more than 50 years, with his studio just blocks from the museum. He became known for vibrant color and bold, angular compositions of monumental cloud formations, layered geologic strata and desert life across the Colorado Plateau and the Sonoran Desert — paintings that make the Arizona sky feel larger than life.
What makes this exhibition special is what visitors have never seen before. When Mell died in 2024, he left behind a studio filled with small-scale paintings and works on paper. The museum is presenting, for the first time, a selection of oil studies and works on paper made from 1974 through 2023 that have never been on view to the public, offering fresh insight into how his process led to his celebrated final paintings. The show is also the inaugural installation of the James K. Ballinger Wing and is curated by Olga Viso.
Phoenix Art Museum, at 1625 North Central Avenue, is open Wednesday 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday noon–5 p.m., with Pay-What-You-Wish admission on Wednesdays from 3 to 8 p.m. It is a joyful, close-to-home way to rediscover the desert through an artist who loved it.
Photo: Phoenix Art Museum
