The Tucson Museum of Art is featuring the exhibit, “Ed Mell: Paintings of the New West,” which will last through May 23.
Mell’s paintings are Western landscapes but with a modernist touch and a new approach, said Meredith Hayes, museum spokeswoman. He has a more contemporary aesthetic on Western painting, featuring the landscape, flora and fauna of the desert.
Mell, a Phoenix native born in 1942, originally pursued automobile design at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. However, he found his connection with Southwest landscapes in 1971 after a summer teaching art on the Hopi reservation.
Mell is influential among Southwestern art circles because of his unique point-of-view and is important to the area and culture of the Southwest, Hayes said.
The nearly 30 pieces in the featured exhibit include his most recent paintings and sculptures and is on display through a curatorial partnership with the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff where the artworks will go next, she said.
