Sam's Rifle

Fusing cinematic culture, modern-day cowgirls and tongue-in-cheek humour, Billy Schenck - also known as the 'Warhol of the West' takes viewers on an exhilarating trek through Western mythology.

Bringing his art to the UK for the first time ever in November 2018, the real-life ranch sorting world champion promises to expose viewers to a reimagined Western narrative. Greek mythology clashes with irony, apocalyptic imagery and sexual tension for a collection that brazenly expands the limits of the genre. Billy's work is characterised by its scorching colour palette, surreal juxtapositions and cinematic composition.

Reproduced in a flattened, reductivist style he illustrates what Southwest Art magazine terms 'a stance…a pendulum between the romantic and the irreverent'. With accomplished use of chiaroscuro, Billy projects photographs from Western movie stills and fills the outlines with flat, hard-edged areas of colour. This, in his own words, produces 'a perfect marriage of photorealism and a paint-by-number system'.

His fiery horizons and landscapes are formed from distinct geographical locations and his childhood memories of summers spent in the high deserts of Wyoming. This curious mixture of real and imaginary, past and present is what defines the Kansas City Art Institute graduate. Through his exploration of mythical Western archetypes - including the lonesome cowboy and stoic Native American - Billy both celebrates and pokes fun at the subject.