Ed Mell: A Closer Look with Dr. Mark Sublette
Wednesday, April 15, 2026 | 6:30–7:30 pm
Great Hall South
TICKETS: Free for Members | Included with General Admission
Join Dr. Mark Sublette for an in-depth exploration of the work of American artist Ed Mell (1942–2024). Beloved for his vibrant color palette and angular compositions, Mell captured the monumental cloud formations, geologic strata, and desert life of the Colorado Plateau and Sonoran Desert. Dr. Sublette’s talk examines Mell’s artistic practice and distinctive approach to interpreting dynamic landscapes, with a special focus on works currently on view in the Museum’s newly renovated North Wing.
Born in Phoenix, Mell was deeply connected to Arizona’s arts community for more than 50 years, maintaining a studio just blocks from Phoenix Art Museum. Ed Mell: In the Studio presents, for the first time, a selection of oil studies and works on paper created between 1974 and 2023. Never before publicly exhibited, these works offer rare insight into Mell’s creative process and the evolution of his final paintings.
Dr. Mark Sublette Bio
Dr. Mark Sublette is the founder of Medicine Man Gallery, an authority on the artwork of Maynard Dixon, and the author of numerous catalogs on Native American art. A former physician, Dr. Sublette is a dedicated educator who shares his extensive knowledge of the American West through lectures, publications, and social media.
Sublette co-curated the Maynard Dixon’s American West exhibition at the Scottsdale Museum of the West (2019-2020), a major retrospective showcasing over 250 works by the iconic artist. In 2021, he was awarded the Ambassador Circle Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tucson Museum of Art, followed by the 2022 C.M. Russell Heritage Award for his biography, Maynard Dixon’s American West, Along the Distant Mesa.
Sublette is the host of the long-running Art Dealer Diaries Podcast, featuring interviews with collectors, dealers, and art enthusiasts. He is also the Charles Bloom Murder Mystery series and the Westin Blackwood Art Detective series. In 2024, he opened the Maynard Dixon and Native American Art Museum in Tucson, Arizona which also features work by Arizona icon Ed Mell.