- Shag (Josh Agle)
Josh Agle (born
August 31 ,1962 ) is an American artist known by the nickname SHAG, which he first used to sign his paintings in 1987. The nickname is derived from the last two letters of his first name, and the first two letters of his last name.Otto Von Stroheim, "Tiki Art Now!: A Volcanic Eruption of Art", Last Gasp, 2004, p83. ISBN 0867196270] He's best known for comical, richly-coloredcocktail and tiki-themed scenes reminiscent of the slick commercial art of the 1950s to mid-1960s.SHAG started out as a freelance commercial illustrator, primarily for independent record labels, in the late 1980s and early 1990s before galleries and collectors began to take notice of his works. He had his first solo gallery exhibition in 1997, and has since had other shows in theUnited States ,Japan andAustralia . He's the author and illustrator of several books about tiki culture and cocktail recipes. He spent the first eight years of his life inOahu ,Hawaii , and currently lives in the hills overlookingSouthern California .In 2005 his art was brought to the stage in
Shag With A Twist , a largedance andtheater production sponsored by the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department and the San Pedro City Ballet Repertory Company. The production ran for 13 weeks at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and later moved to theAladdin Hotel on theLas Vegas Strip .He has also done some design work with Disney, including merchandise for the
Enchanted Tiki Room 's 40th anniversary in 2003 and forDisneyland 's 50th anniversary in 2005.Josh Agle played guitar in such bands as
Swamp Zombies , The Tiki Tones, and The Huntington Cads.Shag also illustrated the cover art for both albums and many singles by
Servotron as well as several album and single covers forThe Dickies .elected books
* "Supersonic Swingers", 2000 (Outre Gallery Press)
* "Bottomless Cocktail", 2000 (La Luz de Jesus Press)
* "Shag Party", 2001 (Surrey Books)
* "Around the World in 80 Drinks", 2003 (Surrey Books)
* "Shag's Zodiac", 2004 (Surrey Books)
* "Shag: The Art of Josh Agle", 2005 (Chronicle Books)
* "Shag Ltd: Fine Art Limited Editions", 2005 (Copro/Nason)References
ee also
*
Lowbrow (art movement) External links
* [http://www.shag.com/ Shag official website]
* [http://www.smee.tv/ The Sophisticated Misfit, the movie about Josh "Shag" Agle]
* [http://www.modculture.co.uk/shag/ ModCulture.com Interview with Josh "Shag" Agle]
* [http://www.artbeatstreet.com/html/shag.html KittyKitty Interviews the Artists - Shag]
* [http://www.jonathanlevinegallery.com/?method=Exhibit.ExhibitDescriptionPast&ExhibitID=3D848769-115B-5562-AA79701E08AB85D8 Josh Agle at Jonathan LeVine Gallery]
* [http://theshagpile.blogspot.com/ The Shag Pile, a resource for collectors of Shag]
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