Opening: Western Masters

New western themed paintings by Billy Schenck and Dennis Ziemienski

On view: July 28–August 12, 2023
Opening Reception: Friday, July 28, 5-7 pm

The stories of the Southwest are full of adventure, rugged and beautiful desert terrain, and a sense of wildness that has captivated people for centuries. California-born painter Dennis Ziemienski is one such artist weaving these narratives to life on canvas. He began his career as an illustrator after receiving a degree in fine art from the California College of Arts & Crafts (now the California College of the Arts) in San Francisco.

One of the originators of the Western Pop Art movement, Billy Schenck incorporates techniques from Photorealism with a Pop Art sensibility to both exalt and poke fun at images of the West. Schenck is known for utilizing cinematic imagery reproduced in a flattened, reductivist style, where colors are displayed side-by-side rather than blended or shadowed. In the August 2014 issue of Southwest Art Magazine, his work was described as “a stance … a pendulum between the romantic and the irreverent.”