Spring in the Desert Exhibition Catalog

Billy Schenck, Robert Townsend + Dennis Ziemienski Exhibition: Spring in the Desert March 20 - April 1, 2017

Reception: March 23, 6:30-9 pm

Altamira Fine Art Scottsdale CLOCKWISE: Billy Schenck, Double Cross, Oil on Canvas, 35" x 45"; Dennis Ziemienski, The Red Bathing Suit, Oil on Canvas, 36"x 30"; Robert Townsend, Emerson, Watercolor on Paper, 39.5" x 50"

az@altamiraart.com

Altamira Fine Art Scottsdale is pleased to welcome three top artists in the Photo Realist and Contemporary Western genres. Spring in the Desert celebrates the best of both worlds. Western depictions are punched up with modern styling and high impact color and drama.

Masterfully painted photorealist watercolors and oils highlight fun, mid-century subjects.

Pre-sales available. Call 480-949-1256, or email az@altamiraart.com.

Meet the artists and experience all that Spring in the Desert has to offer at the show reception on Thursday, March 23, from 6:30-9pm.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

BILLY SCHENCK

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Billy Schenck has been known internationally for the past four decades as one of the originators of the contemporary “Pop” western movement. Early in his career, Schenck became known for utilizing cinematic imagery, reproduced in a flattened, reductivist style, where colors are displayed side-byside rather than blended or shadowed. His art incorporates techniques from PhotoRealism and Pop Art to both praise and mimic classic western images. Schenck’s work is characterized by hot colors, surreal juxtapositions and patterning which explore clashes between wilderness and civilization, the individual and community, nature and culture, freedom and restriction.

Billy’s pieces can be found in major collections throughout the world, including the Smithsonian Institution, Denver Art Museum, The Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Booth Western Art Museum, Tucson Museum of Art, and many more.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST:

ROBERT TOWNSEND

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Robert Townsend paints highly finished images of the icons of an American Pop mythology. His unfailing eye for color and texture produce a vision of America’s material culture that vacillates between nostalgia for what is lost and optimism for the continuation of American ingenuity. Townsend’s aesthetic draws heavily from his California upbringing and life in Los Angeles. Citing American painters Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Bechtle as primary influences, Townsend’s work is a mixture of pop, photo-realism, surrealism and representational interpretations of largely midcentury subject matter.

Robert’s work is in collections including: the Bakersfield Museum of Art; The Getty Family, CA; The Frederick Weisman R. Art Foundation; Beverly Hills, CA; Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH.

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ABOUT THE ARTIST:

DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

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Dennis Ziemienski’s work juxtaposes the classic cowboy life with the increasing influence of Modernism. The scenes in his work accurately depict Western life at the beginning of the last century when railroads, vehicles, motels, and rodeos began to dominate the western landscape. Ziemienski was born in 1947 in San Francisco, CA. He graduated cum laude from the California College of Arts & Crafts in 1972 and has since had studios in California and New York.

Traveling to Europe frequently, he has acquired an affinity for the architecture, lifestyle and light of the Mediterranean. His strong and richly colored images borrow much of their inspiration from early 20th century paintings and posters.

Dennis is in an award winning artist who has had commissions by Time-Life, Levi-Strauss, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, in addition to Super Bowl XXIX, and the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

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SHOW CATALOG

ALTAMIRA FINE ART SCOTTSDALE az@altamiraart.com

Billy Schenck pages 12-19

Robert Townsend pages 20-25

Dennis Ziemienski pages 26-36

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BILLY SCHENCK

ALTAMIRA FINE ART SCOTTSDALE

BILLY SCHENCK

Double Cross, Oil on Canvas, 35" x 45"

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BILLY SCHENCK

Four-Mile Flats, Oil on Canvas, 30" x 30"

14 az@altamiraart.com

BILLY SCHENCK

It’s Beautiful II, Oil on Canvas, 36" x 36"

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BILLY SCHENCK

Portrait, Dorothy, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 30"

16 az@altamiraart.com

BILLY SCHENCK

Scorpion II, Oil on Canvas, 24" x 30"

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BILLY SCHENCK

Surfer Girl IV Oil on Canvas, 50" x 40"

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“My style of painting is a marriage of my earliest romantic remembrances of the West and my artistic roots in the Pop painting of the early 1960s.� ~ Billy Schenck

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ROBERT TOWNSEND

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ROBERT TOWNSEND

Emerson, Watercolor on Paper, 39.5" x 50"

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ROBERT TOWNSEND

Close Cover Before Striking, Watercolor on Paper, 50" x 82"

22 az@altamiraart.com

ROBERT TOWNSEND

Gunslinger, Watercolor on Paper, 42" x 49"

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ROBERT TOWNSEND

Donut Heaven, Oil, 44" x 44"

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ROBERT TOWNSEND

“My work is often discussed as being about mid-century Americana, about a time before my time, and about a detailed style of painting. These are all certainly true. I have a fascination with expressing these utopian notions, fantasies of candies and pies, household products and visions of the American roads.� ~ Robert Townsend

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Desert Ramparts, Oil on Canvas, 40" x 40"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Cholla Blossoms, Oil on Canvas, 20" x 24"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Santa Rita Blossoms, Oil, 20" x 24"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Spring in the Desert, Oil, 36" x 30"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

The Red Bathing Suit, Oil on Canvas, 36" x 30"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Toots, Oil on Linen, 14" x 11"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Neon Diver and Fan Palm, Oil on Board, 24" x 12"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

West, Oil, 48" x 24"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Spring Training, Oil on Canvas, 23" x 29"

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DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

“Growing up in California and taking car trips with my family allowed me to see a lot of this imagery. By the ‘60s and ‘70s, I noticed that much of it was starting to fade away. All of the things I witnessed then started to make me think that some day I would like to record those things.

So now I am.” ~ Dennis Ziemienski

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UPCOMING SHOWS IN SCOTTSDALE Billy Schenck, Dennis Ziemienski & Robert Townsend, “Spring in the Desert” March 20 - April 1, 2017 ARTIST RECEPTION: March 23, 6:30-9pm

2 LOCATIONS: JACKSON, WY + SCOTTSDALE, AZ

172 Center Street | Jackson, Wyoming | 307.739.4700 7038 E. Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona | 480.949.1256 For more information on gallery artists visit www.altamiraart.com