Bill Schenck
El Otro Mundo/The Other World
February 2nd - 29th, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2nd, 5:30 - 8:00 p.m.

The discovery of new lands by explorer Christopher Columbus prompted him to announce that he had discovered El Otro Mundo or The Other World. In this new series of paintings by Santa Fe artist Bill Schenck the concept of discovery is also evident in terms of his painting style, palette and subject matter.

Bill Schenck has been chronicling cowboys, rodeos and western landscapes since the 1970's yet his new work has a richer and vibrant palette and his landscapes are more spatial with greater depth than earlier works. His subject matter has expanded beyond the earlier western stills and rodeo scenes inspired by the beauty of Santa Fe's sunsets and the people of the region.

Early in his artistic career Schenck fell in love with movies; especially the spaghetti westerns and works by Italian masters such as Sergio Leone and Fellini, and appropriated images from these movies as his subject matter. That love of film still pervades his work and his collection of movies is well in the thousands. Schenk is also an avid reader and his love of the written word has also been an inspiration to him.

In the last two years Bill Schenck has had tremendous success with numerous one man exhibitions, his inclusion in the prestigious West Select exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum, a feature article in the Western Art Collector magazine and the traveling exhibition and accompanying catalog of his serigraphs from 1971-1996 . He has had a wonderful revival of his earlier successes from the 1980's and we are pleased to present the new paintings in this exhibition.

Please join us in celebrating El Otro Mundo by Bill Schenck during February 2012. The exhibition will be part of Arizona's centennial festivities as Schenck salutes the western landscape and the life of the cowboy in the West.