Billy Renkl

Billy Renkl
Clarksville, Tennesee, USA

STATEMENT

Paper carries its history in a moving way. It is like a body: it ages, gets scarred, bears the marks of what has happened to it, who has owned it and how they used it.

Sometimes I have an idea for a piece first, and often that comes from something I’m reading. I then start sifting through my studio for the right images to give that idea form. Often, though, I’m struck by how lovely or strange or moving a particular piece of paper is, and it will suggest a direction for a new work.

Before the last hundred years or so, artworks in our tradition were mostly made of the same few luxury materials: oil paint on canvas, tempera on wood panel, stone or bronze, gold leaf on vellum. It was that way, in the European/American tradition, for maybe more than a thousand years. A hundred and seven years ago, though, in the summer of 1912, Georges Braque had an incredible insight: he could paste down a piece of wallpaper that had been printed to look like wood onto his artwork, and forego drawing the wood himself. This was revolutionary–it opened up the whole world for artists. After Braque, artists could make art out of anything. To me, this revolutionary gift is as important in the history of art as the discovery of perspective in the Renaissance.

BIO

I was born in south Alabama, and grew up in Birmingham. I received a BFA from Auburn University, and an MFA in drawing from the University of South Carolina. I am on the faculty at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee; my teaching assignment is broad, but focuses on advanced drawing and beginning illustration.

While in graduate school I explored contemporary concerns particular to media use in the 20th century, and naturally began to employ collage. These works were the basis for my first exhibition, at The Nexus Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta, followed by exhibitions in Tuscaloosa, Lexington, and Auburn. A half-year residency in Basel, Switzerland, allowed me to concentrate solely on collage, and resulted in exhibitions in Birmingham, Alabama, and Berlin, Germany. Collage has been the foundation for my work the last twenty-five years.

I have had solo or two-person exhibitions at Vanderbilt University, Berea College, The Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery, The Indianapolis Arts Center, and The Jule Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University. I have recently had exhibitions in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Oxford, Mississippi. I have been included in more than 50 juried and invitational group exhibitions.

I am a committed teacher and artist, and I have some limited experience with curatorial work and art writing.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.billyrenkl.com

IMAGES