Jim Shaw
dal 12/9/2003 al 18/10/2003
Segnalato da
12/9/2003
Jim Shaw
Metro Pictures, New York
Drawings. The exhibition includes rare airbrush works of the late 1970s, the narrative and illustrative drawings of the 1980s 'Billy Series', many 1990s Dream Drawings, and works from Shaw's new Americana pseudo-religion 'O-ism'.
DRAWINGS
Metro Pictures opens the 2003/04 season with an exhibition of 20+ Years of
Drawings by Los Angeles based artist Jim Shaw. The exhibition includes rare
airbrush works of the late 1970s, the narrative and illustrative drawings of
the 1980s 'Billy Series', many 1990s Dream Drawings, and works from Shaw's
new Americana pseudo-religion 'O-ism'.
Drawing is the one constant in Shaw's wide ranging enterprise that regularly
embraces every medium (painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, music,
etc.) useful in exploring the myriad nuances of his fictional constructs.
Shaw's skillful and diverse works on paper are often highly detailed and
technically meticulous, but can also draw upon informal drawing gestures and
graphic styles that quote comic books, storyboards, advertising or
illustration. Shaw's sources, in addition to current and historical art
references, is often the vast expanse of the seemingly ordinary but
eccentric and obscure cultural detritus found in used bookshops, thrift
stores and flea markets across the U. S.
'My Mirage' is a visually coded coming-of-age tale as told by the artists
alter-ego 'Billy,' an 'every kid' born in the 1950s that covers his
adolescent cultural landscape of the 1960s and 1970s. Began in 1992, the
Dream Drawings are Shaw's documentation of his vivid dream life which
provided the content for much of his painting and sculpture of the period.
Shaw's recent 'O-ist' work, exhibited last year in New York at Metro
Pictures and the Swiss Institute, includes abstract expressionist marks
purported to be from the Book of O.
Jim Shaw's works are represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern
Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain of Geneva, Switzerland,
and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Jim Shaw's work is currently on view at Magasin, Center National d'Art
Contemporain, Grenoble, France. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los
Angeles will show the full 'My Mirage' (Billy) series as will the Whitney
Museum of American Art. 'Everything Must Go' was exhibited at Casino
Luxembourg, MAMBO in Geneva and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati.
'Thrift Store Paintings' (actual found paintings) were shown in 2000 at the
ICA in London. Shaw's work has been included in major shows of Los Angeles
artists such as 'Helter Skelter' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los
Angeles, 'Performance Anxiety' at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
and 'Sunshine and Noir', which originated at the Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art in Denmark and traveled throughout Europe and the United States. His
work was included in the 1991 Whitney Biennial and in the 2002 Biennial of
Sydney Australia.
For additional information or images, please contact Travis Choat or Allison
Card at Metro Pictures.
P) 212.206.7100 F) 212 337 0070
Forthcoming Exhibition:
Isaac Julien BALTIMORE 25 October - 29 November
METRO PICTURES
519 WEST 24TH ST NEW YORK 10011 T: 212 206 7100 F: 212 337 0070