Entitled “Animal Kingdom,” his second solo exhibition with the gallery was named while painting in his studio during the Kentucky Derby. “I heard that a Thoroughbred named Animal Kingdom had won the Kentucky Derby. Since the painting I was working on had a horse in it, and all the paintings for the exhibit featured animals, it seemed to sum up the body of work I was making.”
Recognized worldwide, Agle’s iconic imagery celebrates commercial art from the 1950s and 1960s and is infused with playful narratives about consumerism and hedonism. “Ironic humor, impending trouble, or unexplained situations are common elements in most of my work,” Agle notes. For “Animal Kingdom,” his new collection of paintings returns to brighter and happier times. “Colors have become more radiant, and the men and women in the paintings seem happier and more satisfied in their hedonistic lifestyles.”
Inspired by vintage animal costumes, Furry fandom and anime characters who dress as animals, all of the paintings in the exhibition feature men and women in animal attire. The concept for the show was inspired by a 1970s sewing pattern for an animal costume. While the body remained the same, the ears and tail for each animal changed, transforming it into a tiger, a bunny, a bear or a mouse. Agle adds, “I’ve noticed a lot of teenagers and hipsters recently wearing hoodies and beanies with animal ears, antlers or horns. Maybe there is a subconscious societal urge to return to our animalistic natures. This is a theme I’ve flirted with in the past, but never this directly.”
Open to the public, the reception for “Animal Kingdom” takes place on Saturday, February 11, and the show will be on view until March 7, 2012.
Josh Agle
Josh Agle is a painter and designer from Los Angeles who is probably better known by the name he signs on his paintings, “Shag.” Agle has spent the last decade creating a body of work based on his idiomatic aesthetic preference, a world of mid 20th century modern architecture and design, populated by hedonists, supplicants, and indifferent women.
The paintings themselves celebrate consumerism and consumption on vividly colored, sharply rendered panels; the characters drink, smoke and eat in lavish, stylish surroundings. But Agle sees the visuals of his work as window-dressing or stage scenery. He’s more concerned with the narrative of the art. “Most of my paintings are set in the middle of a story or situation -- characters are interacting and reacting to each other and to outside events.” Agle doesn’t offer too many clues about the stories, preferring that the viewer create his or her own narratives to fit the situations.
While Shag’s work might easily be dismissed as retro-kitsch, the influential New York Times art critic, Roberta Smith, has called his painting catchy and witty, saying “the eye is snared by Mr. Agle’s economic use of saturated colors -- sharp greens and warm lavenders, smoldering reds, sour ochres -- and the tinted-gel space created by his thin-on-thin paint handling.” Interest by museum curators and academics culminated with a solo exhibition of his work at the Laguna Art Museum in early 2008. For more information about Josh Agle, please visit shag.com.
Opening Reception Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 7‑10pm
On View February 11 - March 7, 2012
Corey Helford Gallery
8522 Washington Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90232
T: 310-287-2340
http://www.coreyhelfordgallery.com/
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