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Other 2008 Group Shows

2008 was the year that the world barely avoided total economic collapse, the large hadron collider was officially inaugurated (without imploding the planet), and SpaceX put the Falcon 1 rocket into orbit. In the contemporary art world, Josh Agle contributed to nine group art exhibition including the Corey Helford Gallery exhibition Clowns! which has been covered by another post. The other eight group art shows are covered in chronological order below.

Alex Steinweiss Tribute Show
The Robert Berman Gallery hosted the Alex Steinweiss Tribute Show at the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica in California from January 19th to February 23rd 2008. This group art exhibition included sixty-six pieces including the oddly named Shag acrylic on canvas original painting Maria del Rosario Pilar Martinez Baeza de Rasten Y Francesc d’Asis Xavier Cugat Mingall de Bru I Deulofeu, 2007. The painting measures 15″ by 22″ and retailed for US$8000.


Made in America
Jonathan LeVine Gallery in association with Choque Cultural Gallery held the Made in America exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil from January 19th to February 29th 2008. This exhibition continued the series began with A Survey of Brazilian Street Art, a Jonathan LeVine Gallery show bringing eight of  São Paulo’s finest Street Artists to New York. This return trip group art show featured works by eleven North American artists – Josh Agle, Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Andrew Brandou, DALEK, Shepard Fairey, AJ Fosik, Camille Rose Garcia, MARS 1, Souther Salazar, and Jeff Soto. The exhibition was held at the Choque Cultural contemporary art gallery in São Paulo, Brazil which was founded in 2004. Shag contributed a nine-color limited-edition serigraph print titled Elsa and the Raven (from the 2006 Donna con Bambino exhibition).

In The Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor
The Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, California ran the exhibition In The Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor from June 22nd to October 5th 2008. This group art show of 150 artists focused on the lowbrow, surrealistic, pop, figurative, and narrative work that was publicised by Juxtapoz magazine. The exhibition was curated by Meg Linton, director of the Ben Maltz Gallery. The exhibition had a full-color catalog and a subsequent book named In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor. Shag contributed the painting 2001 Septik Explorer to the exhibition.

Hi-Fructose Group Art Exhibition
The Hi-Fructose Group Art Exhibition ran at the Copro Nason Gallery from 12th July to 2nd August 2008. Shag contributed the original painting Round the Bed which measured 37” by 18” and sold for $15,000 USD.

Star Wars Celebration Japan
The fourth Vader Project exhibition featured one hundred Darth Vader helmets re-imagined by famous creators, artists, and designers from lowbrow, pop surrealism, underground street, graffiti, tattoo, rock poster, apparel, and designer vinyl genres. This iconic collection completed a four-year art odyssey before returning from its world tour in 2010 to a Freeman’s auction in Philadelphia. Josh Agle contributed Darth Tipua (a word from Māori mythology meaning ‘differing shaped demon’) to the collection, this Tiki-themed helmet was auctioned for $2,100 USD. The Star Wars Celebration Japan event at the Makuhari-Messe Convention Center in Tokyo, Japan ran from the 19th to the 21st July 2008. The Helmet can be viewed on pages 8 and 9 of the Vader Project Auction Catalogue which can be seen online at the Freemans auction site.

Baby Tattooville
The 2nd annual Baby Tattooville event at the Mission Inn Hotel and Spa in Riverside, California ran from the 3rd to 5th October 2008. This was the second annual exclusive collectors event and included Shag as one of ten invited artists alongside Amy Sol, Ana Bagayan, Bob Dob, Brandi Milni, Daniel Peacock, Dave Cooper, Glenn Barr, Joe Ledbetter, and Michael Whelan. Visiting artists included Jeff Soto, Thomas Han, Luke Chueh, Tim Biskup, Gris Grimly and Lola.

The event was organized by book publisher Baby Tattoo Book’s Bob Self. There were only fifty attendee packages available, at US$2,000 each, with guests receiving exclusive artwork. Shag designed a limited edition badge, sized 3˝×4 ¾˝, which was produced by Pressure Printing in a limited edition of 100 copies plus proofs. The badge was printed in four colors of relief and one layer of foil stamping on specially perforated Rives BFK printmaking paper. Each Baby Tattooville attendee’s name was hand-lettered onto a badge by a professional calligrapher, with the badge serving as a name-tag throughout the event. A ten-in-one art print was given to attendees as part of their gift pack. The Baby Tattooville poster measured 16″ by 22″ and featured the ten attending artists – Ana Bagayan, Glenn Barr, Dave Cooper, Bob Dob, Joe Ledbetter, Brandi Milne, Daniel Peacock, Shag, Amy Sol and Michael Whelan.

Pressure Printing Inc in Denver produced the Shag designed badge in collaboration with Baby Tatooville for the 2008 weekend event. The badge was printed in four colors of relief and one layer of foil stamping on specially perforated Rives BFK printmaking paper. Each Baby Tattooville attendee’s name was hand-lettered onto a badge by a professional calligrapher, with the badge serving as a name-tag throughout the event.

A twenty-six hour art jam was held during the event where seventeen artists collaborated to create a single painting to be printed and presented to attendees. The art jam started on Friday evening at 18:30 and continued until 22:30 on Saturday evening with the prints being ready for 10:30 on Sunday morning.

Amy Sol began with the blank canvas followed by Jeff Soto who painted with a blow dryer. Joe Ledbetter added a rabbit, Ana Bagayan and Brandi Milne soon joined in with a grey goose and chicklets. The painting moved from the studio to the Ho-O-Kan room at the Mission Inn where Shag, Glenn Barr, Daniel Peacock and Bob Dob continued, followed by Brandi Milni and Jeff Soto painting into the early morning. Shag’s contribution appears to be the black animal (bull?) figure to the right.
Dave Cooper and Glenn Barr continued the next morning, with Michael Whelan and Joe Ledbetter continuing after lunch. Guest artists Lola, Luke Cheuh, Nathan Spoor and Thomas Han also contributed at this stage. During the Riverside Art Museum reception, Amy Sol provided her input.
The painting was completed by 22:30 on Saturday evening where it was picked up by printers Paper or Plastikto who printed 85 canvases and 30 panels. Originally all prints were going to be on panels but the artwork did not come out as bright so they were printed on canvas instead. Bob Self presented the final product at 10:30 on Sunday morning where a hand-signed (ball all seventeen artists) canvas print was given to all attendees. Twenty of the panel prints (18″x24″) were given to the artists with the final ten available for purchase to attendees.
(The art jam photographs are by Andrea Bricco, the resident photographer at Baby Tattooville)

Beyond Baby Tattooville
The Beyond Baby Tattooville exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California ran from September 4th to October 25th 2008. The opening reception was held from 6pm to 9pm on October 4th to coincide with the Baby Tattooville event. Shag was one of twenty-two artists represented at the event. Shag contributed the large Heaven, Earth, and Hell triptych to the exhibition in addition to a smaller painting. The impressive eighteen foot long triptych is from the 2007 exhibition The Flesh is Willing.


3rd Annual BLAB! Show
The 3rd Annual BLAB! Show at the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, California ran from the 6th to the 27th September 2008. The exhibition included original paintings and illustrations from BLAB! Magazine. Shag contributed the painting The Firm Deadline to the exhibition.

Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
The Hunger Artists Theater staged Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book in Fullerton, California from the 12th September to the 5th October 2008. Director Glendele Way-Agle worked with Leonard Joseph Dunham’s adaptation of the classic Jungle Book to appeal to a wide range of theatregoers. Josh Agle provided simple color paintings to enhance the story in addition to the flyer and program image.

Tura! Tura! Tura! A Tribute to Tura Satana
The Tura! Tura! Tura! A Tribute to Tura Satana exhibition at the Tattoo Factory Gallery in Chigago was a group art show celebrating Tura Satana, star of the 1965 Russ Meyer cult film Faster Psusycat! Kill! Kill! The exhibition ran from October 30th to November 26th. Shag’s original painting Key to the Carrera was available as a giclée iris print, sized 17″ by 13″, at a cost of $150 USD. The image is printed on 255gm Somerset velvet-enhanced paper using 75 Epsom inks.

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