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Shag

The Art of Josh Agle Foreword by Billy Shire
Essay by Colin Berry

11-3/4 x 9-3/4 in; 224 pp ; 186 color illustrations
Hardcover
Published in August, 2005
ISBN 081185096X
ISBN13 9780811850964
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$40.00  

Shag -- This is the first major monograph of one of today's most popular and widely regarded artists, Josh Agle—more commonly known as Shag. His trademark style is spotted on everything from cocktail napkins and cigarette lighters to his brand identity work for the new Pink Panther film. But Shag is the first opportunity to appreciate the mastery of expression in this artist's primary output—his paintings. Gathered together here are nearly 200 wry and colorful scenes of signature retro decadence. Wasp-waisted women in Capri pants and turtlenecked, eye-patched men of mystery host parties where deathly specters cavort with cranky wolves, regal bulls, and blasé Adams and Eves sipping martinis. A Shag painting often takes place in the middle of a story whose conclusion could be hilarious, catastrophic, or both, creating a world of endless hinted narratives. Lowbrow gallerist Billy Shire and art critic Colin Berry offer keen essays that situate Shag in the artistic and cultural setting that has spurred him beyond the more predictable work of his contemporaries—creating a book that is simultaneously a fantasy playground of crisp lines and sharp colors, and a serious look at one of our most up-and-coming painters.

Josh Agle, better known as Shag (a contraction of the last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last), has had successful solo exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia. He lives and paints in a mid-century modern home in the hills above L.A.

Billy Shire is the founder and proprietor of La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, and so dubbed "the Peggy Guggenheim of Lowbrow" by JUXTAPOZ magazine.

Colin Berry's art and culture criticism has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wired, Time Out, Print, Surface, Entertainment Weekly, and other publications. He lives in Northern California.