Once referred to as “a ninja with an X-acto blade,” Billy Renkl gives new life to retired documents and images — maps, post cards, grammar school texts — layering their original rational meanings with the metaphor and poetry that come from repurposing printed objects.
Born in Birmingham, Ala., Billy Renkl studied at Auburn University and University of South Carolina before teaching drawing and illustration at Austin Peay University in Clarksville, Tenn.
His work has appeared in solo shows at The Cumberland Gallery in Nashville; Marguerite Oestreicher Fine Arts in New Orleans; Vanderbilt University; University of Kentucky; Tennessee Arts Commission; and Galerie Neue Raume in Berlin, Germany. His work is in permanent collections, including The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Kiwanis Club International, Tennessee State Museum, and The College of Notre Dame, Baltimore. He has created illustrations for clients including Southwest Airlines, How Magazine, Vanderbilt University, Klutz Inc., Strategy & Business, The River Styx, Poems and Plays, and Rigby Publishing.