Altamira Fine Art in Jackson Hole, WY is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Billy Schenck June 30-July 14, 2026.
Please join us for the Artist Reception on Friday, July 3rd from 5-7pm.
An Aesthetic Liability
“I take my work and myself very seriously. But of course, you must keep a sense of humor. I’ll take anything and make it into satire” -Billy Schenck
Billy Schenck’s history in Jackson Hole runs deep- after first visiting in 1953, he spent many summers in Wyoming and following a successful sold-out solo show in New York in 1972, he purchased property in Jackson Hole and built a studio on the land in 1973. At that time, Jackson Hole was truly a wild frontier and unlike anywhere he’d seen. Billy was integral in the inception of the popular Jackson Hole Fall Arts Festival and served as the first featured artist in 1985 (and again in 2015). His return to Jackson this summer will be his first in five years and he believes, his best show to date. Combining his signature caption paintings, punk cowgirl- inspired dot paintings and classic icons of the area, the show features stellar illustrations of what makes Schenck unequivocally one of the most exciting western artists working today and cements him as one of the originators of the Pop Western genre.
Utilizing cinematic imagery translated into a flat, reductivist style, his art combines techniques from Pop Art and Photorealism. Bold on every level, Schenck’s subjects often feature juxtaposition and satire, with dichotomic themes of nature and culture, freedom and restriction, and where they clash. “I’ll take anything that is sacred and blow it apart”, says Schenck. An example of one such caption has three men on horseback with one drawing a rifle, the caption reading, “Aren’t those your children??” Schenck finds the line and then blows past it with a wink and a smile. “You never know what will show up on my canvases”, he says. The wit and charm of his concepts serve to soften the rugged, often brutal reality of the Western frontier.
Billy Schenck is an internationally known artist who pioneered his signature style after early artistic influences from Photorealist, Color Field and Minimalist painters melded with inspiration from his time spent in the Mountain West and a love of Sergio Leone and spaghetti Western films. Schenck’s work can be found in more than forty museum collections including The Smithsonian Institution, The Denver Art Museum, The Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Booth Western Art Museum and many more. With both a film and new book in production, Schenck shows no sign of slowing down and remains as relevant and important as ever to the evolving landscape of the New West art movement. Schenck is also a World Champion Ranch Sorting winner and the proprietor of the Double Standard Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his home for the past two decades.
Pre-sales are available. Contact the gallery for details, 307-739-4700/ connect@altamiraart.com.
More images added soon...
