This episode of the podcast is a recording of the lecture that Billy Schenck gave to collectors and friends at the Maynard Dixon and Native American Art Museum in early February 2026. The lecture centered around Schenck's prints and the many types of works he's reproduced over the past 55 years. Billy also discusses his iconic career, going into depth about his contemporaries and how he has been influenced by the ever changing cast of artists in his life. 

The lecture serves as the end point in a trilogy of podcasts filmed over the last 3 years. These three episodes of the podcast revolved his hugely successful 55-Year Retrospective exhibit and sale that opened at Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, AZ on February 6th, 2026.

Billy Schenck is a pioneer in the pop-western art movement and we are extremely grateful to have hosted such an important show. His work is on display in dozens of museums across the country, and will someday be housed in his own museum near Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

This lecture was not only educational, but very entertaining and I'm glad we were able to record it. This is Billy Schenck on Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 384.

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year. 

It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel over the years. Hands down the best paper conservator I've ever had the pleasure of working with. 

They also have a renowned art printing component. They make and sell prints of the works of ornithological artist J.J. Audubon. In fact, much like how I am known for my expertise on the artist Maynard Dixon, Joel is most likely the world's leading expert on Audubon and his prints. He's done a couple of different books on Audubon that showcase his knowledge as well as his commitment to achieving the highest quality reproductions possible.

Anyhow, it was a long podcast, we talked for almost two hours, but it was very, very interesting. His life is definitely unique and he's a very wise individual.

He's also an artist. Joel basically started as fine artist and navigated through the art world from expertise to expertise, and now with retirement, he's going back to his original love, painting and pastels. 

So this was very unique story of a very successful art dealer and I had a great time. This is Joel Oppenheimer part two.

I had artistic polymath Joel Oppenheimer on the podcast today who has recently retired from being an art dealer. He was the former president of Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago, IL with his son David officially taking over last year. 

It's a wonderful gallery. There are many different components to Oppenheimer Gallery. One of them is art conservation, which is how I've gotten to know Joel over the years. Hands down the best paper conservator I've ever had the pleasure of working with. 

They also have a renowned art printing component. They make and sell prints of the works of ornithological artist J.J. Audubon. In fact, much like how I am known for my expertise on the artist Maynard Dixon, Joel is most likely the world's leading expert on Audubon and his prints. He's done a couple of different books on Audubon that showcase his knowledge as well as his commitment to achieving the highest quality reproductions possible.

Anyhow, it was a long podcast, we talked for almost two hours, but it was very, very interesting. His life is definitely unique and he's a very wise individual.

He's also an artist. Joel basically started as fine artist and navigated through the art world from expertise to expertise, and now with retirement, he's going back to his original love, painting and pastels. 

So this was very unique story of a very successful art dealer and I had a great time. This is Joel Oppenheimer part one.

So Billy Schenck and I have been working on a two year project. It's a retrospective, a 55-year retrospective, and we did a catalog. This podcast was filmed a year ago at Billy's studio where we talked about this project at length.

Now, you get to actually see what we've been working on. To put all this effort in and to get to see them all together is exceptionally gratifying. I'm sure it's gratifying for Bill because this is a big deal, but it's a big deal for me too. 

On top of all of his important works that make up the museum show, Billy has has been putting away new works for two years for this show.  Large format photographic prints that have never been shown before, as well as some of his caption pieces and a beautiful group of his landscapes.

It was quite interesting to try to set this up because we're looking at his life's work (his serigraphs and foundational paintings) in combination with the result of a life of working on art (his newest body of work). The museum show has a good portion of his serigraphs paired with his early paintings. Trying to figure out that balance from a curatorial standpoint was an interesting experience.

If you're listening to the podcast, go to YouTube, go check out the show, not only the gallery show, but the museum show. We have included a preview of the show in this version of episode 377 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast. 

So this podcast that you're listening to is the culmination of all the work that we did over the last two years to get to this point. It was an exercise in storytelling, telling the Billy Schenck story, and I think we've done a beautiful job of it. 

I had a podcast today with Erika Victor, who's this just unique individual who I had originally met at the Far West show in Austin, Texas. I had followed her on her Instagram because I liked her work. I just thought it was very unique. It has a sensibility that's different from most other people, and that's what I'm looking for in an artist. 

Erika came by my gallery in Tucson to record this episode and I had no idea that by the end of the podcast I'd be showing her work. I truly didn't expect to have that happen. After seeing her work in person, getting to speak to her for an extended period of time, all of that really solidified my idea that this is a person that has what it takes to succeed as an artist and is committed to her craft. 

She's from Kansas, and she got her degree in photography, but nowadays she teaches art in Zuni, New Mexico. Not everybody can make the transition to a place like Zuni. It's beautiful, I love the place and the people, but it's very isolated. Erika moved there for her job, but picked Zuni specifically over a handful of other options because of the landscape (something she absolutely loves to paint). She loves painting people too and her paintings of Native American people exhibit a contemporary approach to a classic western art theme.

Anyhow, I enjoyed this podcast a great deal and I hope you like this podcast as much as I did. This is our newest represented artist as of January 2026, Erika Victor.

View available works by Erika Victor here: https://www.medicinemangallery.com/collections/victor-erika

I had a wonderful podcast today with Sean Michael Chavez. If you are anywhere in the Western art world in 2026, you will have heard his name and more than likely seen his artwork. 

Chavez  really exploded onto the scene over the last eight years, but like everything good in this world, it took a long time to get there. It definitely didn't happen overnight, though sometimes it might seem that way. Sean will be the first to tell you that he's a 30 year overnight success. 

We talk about his journey of growing up in New Mexico and how he found his path in the arts through graphic design, evolving into a traditional artist after many lived experiences. To him, it was clear he was an artist from the get-go.

Teasing out these little moments and stories from his life that show how he got to where he is today was a great experience for me. It's a real joy for me to listen to somebody and to be able to follow that journey in real time.  

I think this was a beautiful interview. I enjoyed it and I think you will enjoy it as well. This is Sean Michael Chavez on episode 380 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

Got to meet with Len Chmiel today. He's one of my favorite artists. He's just incredibly gifted and I've always been a huge fan of his work. We were at the Coors Art show in Denver and we found a little hidden conference room, and we sat down and talked. In fact, at the end of the the show that we were doing, the music was playing and it was kind of beautiful.

Len is just such a creative individual. There's people that you meet in this world who think very deeply about their craft. From the smallest details of lighting to the canvas and how he finds the inspiration. 

We talk about inspiration, the things that make you want to make a painting in the first place. Len and I agree, you can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it every day as a true artist, which he does.

After the interview was over he said, "oh yeah, I lived in this place in Redondo for two years. I just kind of boarded up the windows and lived on a couch and did my artwork. That's just how I had to do it and just live there." He as barely making a living but for him it was just part of the road he was on. It was part of his journey. 

You know, the journey of an artist is one that is filled with struggle. That being said, there are great rewards if you can do it. Len has and I highly encourage you to go follow him on Facebook and see what he's done.

If you're at any of the shows that he exhibits at, make sure you go and see his work. He's terrifically important and this was very fun and enlightening to speak with him. This is Len Chmiel on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast episode 379.

What a wonderful podcast I had with Marilou Schultz. She is a master weaver and a math teacher who grew up in Leupp, Arizona on the Navajo Nation.

She has been teaching her entire life and is justs now going into weaving full-time. There's good reason for that too. You see, Marilou's weavings are very in demand. She has a waitlist that includes the Basel and MoMA collections. 

What she has done is interpreted various computer chips through the lens of a traditional Diné weaver. It's just an amazing story. She got a commissioned by Intel to do a rendition of the Pentium chip in 1994. She's a fourth generation Navajo Weaver and she uses her background in mathematics to create these incredible textiles. 

I was fortunate enough to get one of these ordered a year ago, and she brought it to me today. I got to see it for the first time during this podcast and you can see my eyes light up as she unravels this masterpiece.

I highly recommend that you watch this on YouTube because you will be able to see her interact with the textile, as well see her tell her story, which is quite remarkable. 

This is one of my favorite podcasts that I've done. I hope you enjoy it. This is master Diné weaver, Marilou Schultz on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

This podcast is really a "part two" podcast in the sense that Billy Schenck and I have been working over two years on his 55-Year Retrospective show. We released a podcast that was recorded a year before this one, where we were discussing the planning process and that conversation continues in this episode as we approach the opening reception.

It takes a lot of time and energy to pull off a show of this magnitude. The show opens February 6, 2026 and it was very interesting to attack it in this way, knowing we're in the process of making history. What we're talking about and how it's going to be looked at by future by historians, stuff like that.

We filmed this at Billy's house which is a really beautiful place.  It is filled with all the things that creatives need to be inspired. You see, his entire house will ultimately become a museum (It's part of his nonprofit organization) so we're kind of living through real history. It's amazing.

I fully expect that this podcast will be played in the museum sometime in the future, as a point of reference of this moment in time when he had this monumental retrospective featuring so much work.

Anyways, it was a wonderful interview. Even if you can't make the retrospective, you can listen to this podcast and get a feel for the important contribution that Billy Schenck has made to the art world.

There's a book that we  did on the this show as well, which is available on our website if you want to take the show home with you. I hope you enjoy. This is Pop Western art icon Billy Schenck on the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

One of the things I love about doing this podcast is that I get a variety of people that come through my life. In this case it's Bill Healey, who I've known probably 25 plus years. His role, his part of the art ecosystem is different than many of the other people I've had on, and that is of a collector. He's a true collector who has this unique history, which I went into and I found very, interesting. 

How he went from economics, to commercial development, to then retiring and devoting his life to art. First Western art, Russells, Remingtons, etc., followed by an epiphany when he was at the Heard Museum, seeing images of the Native American boarding schools. I remember that exhibit very well. I have one of these images in my own collection hanging in my own office. I look at it all the time just to help keep me grounded. Well, that image really set him off on a new odyssey to understand Native art and  history in a different way. He then sold off the majority of this Western material, and focused on collecting Indigenous American art. 

Bill has built this huge collection, part of which he donated to the Saint Louis Art Museum. They did a beautiful book on the collection and he's going to continue to give away pieces that he's collected to museum institutions to help tell the story of indigenous artists ranging from 1920 to today. 

It's a fun ride of through his life and over 60 years of collecting. I think it's a real gift that Bill shared it with us.