Billy Schenck and Dennis Ziemienski: "Duel in the Sun"

BILLY SCHENCK

Canyons Below the Mogollon Rim, Oil, 28 x 22 inches

DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI

Neon Splash, Oil, 48 x 24 inches

DUEL IN THE SUN

March 3-17, Reception: March 12, 7-9pm

ALTAMIRA FINE ART SCOTTSDALE

BILLY SCHENCK

“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

Bill Schenck was born in a small town north of Columbus, Ohio, in 1947. He spent childhood summers exploring the wilderness near Lander, Wyoming. He attended Columbus College Of Art and Design from 1965 to 1967, and received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 1969. While still a young man, he moved to New York where he was influenced by the Photo-Realists, Color Field, and Minimalist painters in vogue at the time. When he was 24 years old, his first solo show in New York City sold out.

Early in his career, Schenck became known for utilizing cinematic imagery, reproduced in a flattened, reductivist style, where colors are displayed side-by-side rather than blended or shadowed. His art incorporates techniques from Photo-Realism and Pop Art to both praise and mimic classic western images. His 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.

In the mid-1970’s, the work exemplified in his paintings drew him west, where he split his time between Wyoming and Arizona. He now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work can be found in numerous 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. Schenck’s work has been the subject of four museum retrospectives, including The West as It Never Was, at the Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art. The 2013 illustrated book, Schenck in the 21st Century: The Myth of the Hero and the Truth of America, by Amy Abrams, features paintings, caption drawings and caption paintings produced by Schenck from 2000-2012. A book of his serigraphs, Bill Schenck: Serigraphs 1971-1996, was published in 2010 in conjunction with a touring retrospective of the same title.

A Cowgirl For All Seasons Oil on Canvas 18 x 18 inches

A Stop in the Sagebrush Oil on Canvas 20 x 24 inches

Bluffs Above the Rio Grande Oil on Canvas 24 x 30 inches

Canyons Below the Mogollon Rim Oil on Canvas 28 x 22 inches

Earth Angel Oil on Canvas 60 x 50 inches

The Evening Wind Oil on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

Distant Canyons Oil on Canvas 28 x 22 inches

Late Summer Monsoons Oil on Canvas 22 x 28 inches

Long Shadows Oil on Canvas 24 x 30 inches

One Last Mesa Oil on Canvas 20 x 30 inches

White Heat II Oil on Canvas 60 x 50 inches

The Mighty Mesa Oil on Canvas 40 x 70 inches

Buckhorn Bungalow Oil on Canvas 40 x 60 inches

DENNIS ZIEMIENSKI “Growing up in California and taking car trips with my family allowed me to see a lot of this imagery. By the 60’s and 70’s, 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 Dennis Ziemienski was born in 1947 in San Francisco, CA. He graduated cum laude from the California College of Arts & Crafts in 1972.

Ziemienski 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. “I like that period of time because it hasn’t been well recorded,” Ziemienski said. “You don’t see a lot of paintings of cowboys sitting in Model T Fords.

But they did – and right alongside their horses.”

Ziemienski has 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.

He has won numerous awards and has had commissions by Time-Life, Levi-Strauss, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, in addition to Super Bowl XXIX, the 2006 Kentucky Derby, and the Sonoma Salute to the Arts. Churchill Downs selected Ziemienski as the Official Artist of the 2006 Kentucky Derby.

September Clouds, Sonoma, CA Oil on Canvas 10 x 8 inches

Beneath the Red Earth Oil on Canvas 16 x 12 inches

Palms in Sunrise Oil on Canvas 8 x 10 inches

Chile Bowl Oil on Canvas 10 x 10 inches

Grand Cactus Oil on Canvas 60 x 40 inches

Ice Cream Light Oil on Canvas 36 x 24 inches

Night Dive Oil on Canvas 24 x 18 inches

Neon Splash Oil on Canvas 48 x 24 inches

Storm Rider Oil on Canvas 20 x 24 inches

Old Cocktail Sign Oil on Linen 20 x 16 inches

Silver Spur Oil on Canvas 40 x 30 inches

Sandstone Spires Oil on Canvas 20 x 24 inches

Sentinel Mesa Oil on Canvas 18 x 24 inches

UPCOMING SHOWS ED MELL, HOWARD POST and GARY ERNEST SMITH “LEADING THE WEST” Show Dates: March 30 - April 11 Reception Date: April 9, 7-9pm JARED SANDERS “ROADSIDE” Show Dates: April 14-25 Reception Date: April 23, 7-9pm Visit www.altamiraart.com for more on these and other upcoming events at our two gallery locations.

For more information please contact: Audrey Parish, az@altamiraart.com Dean Munn, dean@altamiraart.com or call 480.949.1256 www.altamiraart.com

ALTAMIRA FINE ART SCOTTSDALE 7038 E. Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona | 480.949.1256 172 Center Street | Jackson, Wyoming | 307.739.4700