Santa Fe Indian Market is such an interesting event and should be on every art lover's bucket list. This is the 103rd market and it's always the third week in August. They have a big ceremony to kick the weekend off and it's when they judge all the different art that comes in from all the artists.

Medicine Man Gallery and the Sublette Family Foundation for the Arts provide the funds for the Best of Show award, so we get to attend this exclusive event. I wanted you to be able to experience the event and if you watch it on YouTube, you can actually see the artist win and the pieces that won them the awards. 

For these artists, winning can be such a life changing event. The winners have their name called up as the best of their respective classification, whether it's pottery, jewelry, weaving etc. then they allow the judges to decide who is the best of all. Santa Fe Indian Market Best of Show is an extremely rare accolade to have as an artist. This year is no different than any other. 

I am soooo happy I was not a judge. It would have been very difficult to determine who was the best of the best. I was a surprised when they announced the winner and was somebody who was participating in Santa Fe Indian Market for the very first time. To be honest, it was a remarkable piece that won and there's no question it was among some of the toughest competition in years.

It's so much fun to hear and to see the artists and their families and how they react to winning. The joy you can see on their faces is second to none and well deserved. So I hope you enjoy this podcast. This is the Best of Show award ceremony for the 2025 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market.

Billy Schenck's 55 Year Retrospective will open February 6, 2026 at Medicine Gallery, and over a year ago, I came out to Billy's studio to talk to him about what we're planning to do. It's been a year since then, and with the show coming up next year, that makes it a two year project. So you get to see Billy's studio (if you're watching on YouTube) and be able to hear the thought process behind what's required to do such a comprehensive show.

I mean, it's going to be his life's work, from his serigraphs to his older paintings to new paintings as well. We'll be using the entire gallery, as well as the Maynard Dixon & Native American Art Museum for this exhibition. This podcast will give you a taste of what's coming and the explain the basic requirements for an artist and a dealer to pull off a show of this magnitude.

There's a lot of moving parts, two years worth, for that matter, and there's a companion art book that Billy put together and I had the privilege to write the introduction for it

So I hope that you enjoy the podcast, but I also hope that you put into your databases the February 6th, 2026 date for this show. It's going to be important and it's going to be a party. There's going to be a lot of work there spanning the entire career of the legend, Billy Schenck.

I had Daniel Gerhartz on today. What a pleasant, lovely human being that he is. I've always been a fan of his work. It's emotionally driven. For me, when I see it, I feel things.

This is a man who has taken his work seriously since really junior high and started showing in galleries when he was 25 years old. In fact, this year was his 35th Prix de West. He's 60 now and he's had quite the journey so far.

I think for artists, especially the end of the the part of the podcast is very helpful. Dan gives some really helpful tips and shares his perspective on on the art world. This information is really helpful if you're a young artist, trying to break into the business, and trying to be that person who maybe follows in the same footsteps as Dan.

This was a really enjoyable conversation and it's really why I do these podcasts. Getting to spend an hour with somebody who's a remarkable artist that you respect and really get to talk about what makes them tick. For me, it was a gift and I'm grateful. This is Daniel Gerhartz on episode 359 of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.

You can see work by Daniel on his website:
www.danielgerhartz.com

I had Marc Sternberg on today, and it was a very interesting podcast, a little different than what I normally do. Marc contacted me, wanting to interview me for the documentary he's working on titled "Cowgirls: The Women of Western Art."

Marc had seen a show that was about cowgirl art at Western Spirit: Scottsdale's Museum of the West, and he was wondering why an exhibit focusing on women was separated from everything else. He just didn't understand why it had to be an entirely separate exhibit. That experience led him down this rabbit hole of women in Western art and he jumped in head first as any inquisitive creative person does when they get that nugget of information that really makes them invested in something new.  Marc goes "Well, I think maybe I should do a documentary on it." So he's working on this film now and he's interviewing some of the top women in the Western art space.

Like I said, it's a little different because he wanted to interview me and I wanted to interview him. So we just kind of interviewed each other. You get this great talk about the film and what he's doing and what he's hoping to accomplish. Then I flip it on it's side and let him interview me on questions that he has that are pertinent to his documentary.

So it's an interesting podcast that covers a lot of ground. Not only cowgirl art, but women artists in general. But I had a great time, very fun and, you know, I think if you are interested in this dialog, you will find it fascinating.

Watch the trailer for "Cowgirls: The Women of Western Art" here:
https://vimeo.com/1100188514

I recently visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. They have this event every year in June and it's a wonderful gathering of some of the very finest Western and Native American Artists. It's basically all sculpture and paintings, and you have very traditional art, but you also have very contemporary art as well.

I interviewed five different individuals for the podcast while I was there. They were all very gracious to give me their time to talk about their paintings and what they're currently doing. So it's a little less in-depth on the journey, but much more heavy on the process, which I like. It's interesting for me because that's usually not my thing as much as trying to figure out why individuals create art the way they do.

So there's, a group of these podcasts and I'm going to have them come out once a week. This is the final episode in the series and it features a true master of contemporary portraiture, Scott Burdick.

I recently visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. They have this event every year in June and it's a wonderful gathering of some of the very finest Western and Native American Artists. It's basically all sculpture and paintings, and you have very traditional art, but you also have very contemporary art as well.

I interviewed five different individuals for the podcast while I was there. They were all very gracious to give me their time to talk about their paintings and what they're currently doing. So it's a little less in-depth on the journey, but much more heavy on the process, which I like. It's interesting for me because that's usually not my thing as much as trying to figure out why individuals create art the way they do.

So there's, a group of these podcasts and I'm going to have them come out once a week. This episode features Montana-based landscape painter, Josh Elliott.

I recently visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. They have this event every year in June and it's a wonderful gathering of some of the very finest Western and Native American Artists. It's basically all sculpture and paintings, and you have very traditional art, but you also have very contemporary art as well.

I interviewed five different individuals for the podcast while I was there. They were all very gracious to give me their time to talk about their paintings and what they're currently doing. So it's a little less in-depth on the journey, but much more heavy on the process, which I like. It's interesting for me because that's usually not my thing as much as trying to figure out why individuals create art the way they do.

So there's, a group of these podcasts and I'm going to have them come out once a week. This episode features legendary cowboy artist, Howard Post. 

I recently visited the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for the 2025 Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale. They have this event every year in June and it's a wonderful gathering of some of the very finest Western and Native American Artists. It's basically all sculpture and paintings, and you have very traditional art, but you also have very contemporary art as well.

I interviewed five different individuals for the podcast while I was there. They were all very gracious to give me their time to talk about their paintings and what they're currently doing. So it's a little less in-depth on the journey, but much more heavy on the process, which I like. It's interesting for me because that's usually not my thing as much as trying to figure out why individuals create art the way they do.

So there's, a group of these podcasts and I'm going to have them come out once a week. The first episode in the series features Eric Bowman and Brett Allen Johnson. I hope you enjoy.

It's fun sometimes to get out of my studio and actually go to the place of work of the people that I interview, and in this case, I was able to do that with Jack Becker who is the Executive Director and CEO of the Joslyn Museum in Omaha. He's been there since 2010 and he's a very interesting man.

I love the fact that at every point really, he points out that it is an effort by not just himself. In fact, he emphasizes that the staff really makes things happen. I think that's always a sign of a great leader.

Jack also has a very interesting background. He has an incredible resumé of working with so many incredible institutions but he also goes to Alaska and works in a fish processing facility for a year. 

I had a great time talking with Jack, but I also to had the opportunity to look around and see the collection of the Joslyn Art Museum. It's such a beautiful museum. They recently opened a  42,000 square foot expansion in 2024 and it has put this museum on top of many lists as one of the top museums in America. 

Personally? I couldn't agree more. You should go see this museum if you have a chance. It might seem like it's a little bit off the beaten path, but I fell in love with Omaha, and I fell in love with the Joslyn Art Museum, and I think you will too.

This episode features (in order of appearance) artists Amery Bohling, Barbara Van Cleve, Donna Howell-Sickles, and a lecture snippet from Maynard Dixon's American West by Dr. Mark Sublette.

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I'm going to be doing some podcasts on the road and I thought that for the next couple of weeks I’d republish parts of some of the favorite podcasts that I've done over the last eight years.

With 351 podcasts so far, I have plenty of individuals to choose from. These people that have come into my life that I find interesting, those that are really important to what I do, and to how I see the world. 

So I hope you enjoy these next few highlight episodes of the Art Dealer Diaries Podcast.