Scottsdale Art Week | March 19-22, 2026 | Scottsdale, AZ

Heating Up

Southwestern art shines at Scottsdale Art Week

By Alyssa M. Tidwell

Scottsdale Art Week, formerly Scottsdale Ferrari Art Week,is packing a major punch this year for Arizona-based collectors and beyond. The high-end fair is a celebration of the Southwest, showcasing the histories and cultures of the Navajo, Apache and Hopi tribes who first occupied this land. And while the fair includes some historic pieces, it’s all about the contemporary art.

Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Water Memory, 2015, archival photograph. © Cara Romero. Courtesy the artist.

Taking place at WestWorld of Scottsdale, the 2026 Scottsdale Art Week will have 124 booths representing 16 countries in a massive warehouse-style exhibition space.

“There are a lot of really cool Native programs,” says Josh Rose, fair consultant. The inaugural Indigenous Artist of the Year Award will be going to renowned Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero, who has also taken a booth at the 2026 fair. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a gallery owned by an Indigenous woman has taken a booth at a major art fair, so that’s huge,” Rose says. Starting at the end of February, Romero will also have a traveling solo show at the Phoenix Art Museum titled Cara Romero: Panûpünüwügai (Living Light), which will overlap with Scottsdale Art Week.

Paintings on view at Larsen Gallery’s booth.

“She was very excited about going to Phoenix because this is the largest institution in the approximate range of where her tribe is from in Southern California,” Rose adds.

One of the returning artists to Scottsdale Art Weekis multi-faceted Tohono O’odham artist Thomas “Breeze” Marcus. “He’s curating a group show of contemporary Indigenous art, and it’s going to have some pretty incredible names. He’s also going to paint live during opening night,” says Rose. “He’s kind of become the Phoenix artist…He did that mural at the Scottsdale Museum of the West, and he’s doing this huge mural project for the City of Phoenix, so to have him involved just strengthens what we’re trying to do.

Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), Evening on Orocopio, ca. 1940, oil on canvas, 10 x 14 in. Courtesy Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery.

Collectors will find a wide variety of artwork throughout the fair, including paintings by Fritz Scholder, Maynard Dixon, Ed Mell and Peter Anton, all of whom have a Western focus.

Peter Anton, Hot Red Pepper, mixed media, 40 x 10 x 6 in. Courtesy Bonner David Galleries.

A First Look event will take place on Thursday, March 19, from 1 to 6 p.m., followed by the Opening Night Vernissage from 6 to 9 p.m. The public portion of the fair officially kicks off on Friday, March 20, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and continues through Sunday, March 22, closing at 5 p.m.

Ed Mell (1942-2024), Sunset Sweep, ca. 1993, oil on linen, 30 x 40 in. Courtesy Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery.

“On Friday we’ve decided it’s going to be a ‘design day,’ which means we’re inviting interior designers, architects [and other designers] for a reception around 5 p.m. [We’ll have] guest speakers Tyler and Naiomi Glasses, talking about their journey in the art world, as well as their two collaborations with Ralph Lauren,” Rose says. “There’s going to be quite a bit of Native representation throughout the fair. The way I see it, we are in the Southwest, so we need to be the fair in North America that shines a light on this.”