Other 2017 Group Shows

Josh Agle is an active participant in group art shows and frequently supports local Palm Springs events in addition to many international mid-century, low-brow, tiki, or advertising themed shows. It is hard at times to categorize his style but there can be no argument that he is extremely talented and his work is very popular.

This post looks specifically at the twenty-one group art shows from 2017, excluding the six that are already covered under other posts:

• Welcome to New Jersey (Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Feb 18-Mar 18)
• Art Collector Starter Kit (Corey Helford Gallery, Apr 1-Apr 29)
• Comic-Con (San Diego Conference Center, 19-23 Jul)
• Dragon Con (Hyatt Regency Atlanta,1-3 Sep)
• 21st Anniversary The Art of Tiki Show (La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Oct 6-Oct 29)
• A Private Collection (Outré Gallery, Oct 20-31)

In chronological order, the other fifteen group exhibitions from 2017 were:

Tiki-A-Go-Go
Tiki-A-Go-Go was a Tiki Caliente 9 party hosted by the Royal Hawaiian Estates Homeowners from 6pm-9pm on Saturday 18^th February 2017. The event included music from DJ Baz and a live performance from The Hula Girls. Shag donated an In Search of Tiki sixteen-color limited-edition serigraph print from 2008 to the charity raffle in aid of restoration of the Royal Hawaiian Estates historic district.

Modernism Week
Modernism Week 2017 ran from the 16^th to the 26^th February 2017 in Palm Springs, California. Josh Agle gave a talk titled Modern Exuberance on the 25^th February at the Community And Meeting Place (CAMP) which examined the transition of minimalism to maximalism and how it influenced his work. Following the presentation, Shag signed copies of Shag: The Collected Works at the Dunn-Edwards Paints booth. Josh Agle also hosted the Pinball Fever event at the Museum of Pinball later that evening. In addition to playing with over seven hundred vintage machines, drinking cocktails and eating gourmet hot dogs, guests received a limited-edition, signed Shag wooden postcard.

Juxtapozed
The Juxtapozed exhibition was held at the Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana from the 21^st April to the 9^th July 2017. The group exhibition of forty-eight artists focused on new contemporary art and celebrated the impact of the Juxtapoz Magazine. It was organized by the Thinkspace Gallery and Copro Gallery and open in parallel with Robert Williams: SLANG Aesthetics! Josh Agle’s contribution to the exhibition was Family Tree, an acrylic on panel original painting sized 30.5” by 18” and costing $16,000 USD.


Tiki Caliente 9
The Tiki Caliente 9 event took place at the Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs, California from the 18^th to the 21^st May 2017. The Shag Store pop-up store released the Wahine Ata Ahua print on the 20^th May. This three-color serigraph was the first release in the new Unthropology series depicting young women set in Polynesian Islands wearing traditional dress alongside traditional tiki carvings. The print measures 8” by 10” and retailed for $99 USD. On 2pm Saturday 20^th May 2017, Shag gave a talk called Shag: Amongst the Tikis which described his childhood in Hawaii and the influence of Tiki on his art. The symposium cost $48 USD and included a Mai Tai cocktail provided by the Reef  Palm Springs restaurant.

TikiCat Print Release
Shag attended the Tiki Cat and Kittens release party at the TikiCat Tiki bar in Kansas City, Missouri from 4 pm to 5 pm on May 13^th 2017. The sixteen-color serigraph print measures 34″ by 20″, was exclusive to the bar, limited to fifty copies, and cost $500 USD.

Surfer Joe Summer Festival 2017
The Surfer Joe Summer Festival is held in Livorno, Italy and is the largest gathering of surf music fans in the world. The 12^th annual show took place during June 2017 from Thursday 22^nd to Sunday 25^th. Josh Agle was present in the Tiki Room from 4 pm on the Saturday for a meet and greet, and then at 10 pm joined the Huntington Cads on the main stage for a reunion show. Shag also designed the poster for the event.

Ohana 2017: The Luau at the Lake
The Ohana: The Luau At The Lake event at the Tiki Resort in Lake George, New York ran from the 22^nd to the 25^th June 2017. The flagship event of the Fraternal Order of Moai sold out, with attendees of this ninth annual gathering in upstate New York enjoying three days of cocktails, music, and entertainment. The event included carvers, vendors, and artists including Josh Agle who created the advertising, an exclusive show print, a necklace, and a Tiki mug.

Shag created the Ohana Luau at the Lake print for the event, in addition to the Maka’ala (the watchful eye) – Ohana Luau at the Lake 2017 pendant, and Maka’ala Tiki mug.


Tiki Oasis 2017
The Tiki Oasis 2017 was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in San Diego, California from the 10^th to the 13^th August 2017. The print Uha Rapa Nui was released at the Shag Store pop up on Saturday August 12^th. The three-color serigraph is the second release in the Unthropology series depicting young women set in Polynesian Islands wearing traditional dress alongside traditional tiki carvings. The print measures 8” by 10” and retailed for $99 USD.

12^th Annual BLAB! Show
The 12^th Annual BLAB! Show at the  Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, California ran from the 9^th to the 30^th September 2017. This group exhibition of 45 artists included Josh Agle who contributed the acrylic on panel original painting Family Tree, which measures 30.5” by 18” and cost $16,000 USD. Note that this painting was originally shown at the Juxtapozed exhibition at the Museum of Art in Fort Wayne, Indiana earlier in the year.

East Looking West
The group show East Looking West was curated by Jonathan LeVine and held at Heron Arts in San Francisco, California from September 16^th to October 7^th 2017. The exhibition highlights twenty-one lowbrow artists based on the West Coast. Josh Agle showed Gitagaru, an acrylic on panel painting measuring 40” by 16”.

Crime on Canvas
The Crime on Canvas group art exhibition at the Western Hotel in Downtown Las Vegas ran from the 22^nd to the 24^th September 2017 and was part of the Life is Beautiful Music and Arts Festival. The show featured seventy artists including Josh Agle who provided a number of prints for the exhibition and created the poster for the festival. Shag’s 41″ x 20″ acrylic on panel original painting Green Lagoon also premiered at the show for $12,999, but failed to sell. It later appeared at the Shag Store in Palm Springs (below right) where it sold in early 2018.

Palm Swings Movie Premiere
The premiere of the Palm Swings movie was held at the Mary Pickford Theatre in Cathedral City, California at 7pm on the 11^th of October 2017. The event included the screening followed by a Q&A with a panel of filmmakers and special guests. The film was shot around Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley area, including at the Shag Store. Josh Agle produced the Palm Swings – Do You Play? poster.

Greater Palm Springs Pride
The Greater Palm Springs Pride event was held from the 1^st to the 5^th November 2017. Josh Agle produced the fundraising poster for the LGBT community event. The poster measures 18” by 24” and was produced in an unsigned open edition for $24.99 USD.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl
The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles hosted a live-to-film celebration of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory at 8pm on the 3^rd and 4^th of November 2017. The cast for the event included John Stamos as Willy Wonka, Ingrid Michaelson as Charlie’s mom, Giancarlo Esposito as Candy Man, Richard Kind as Grandpa Joe, Elle King as Veruca Salt, Weird Al Yankovic as an Oompa Loompa, and Finn Wolfhard as Charlie. The show was directed by Richard Kraft and Maximillian Castill. November 4^th is also National Candy Day which fit well with the theme and Annabella Lwin from Bow Wow Wow singing the I Want Candy finale.

Kraft met Shag at Comic-Con 2016 and offered him the chance to have “the biggest canvas ever to for his art – the façade of the Hollywood Bowl”, an offer he quickly accepted. Maximillian and Kraft found twenty-four places during the show for custom art and asked Josh Agle which ones he could provide, he answered “I’m doing them all”. In total, Shag created twenty-five pieces for the show which were then animated to appear during the scenes spectacularly beamed around the stage.

The show was presented in Smell-O-Rama with guests receiving excusive scratch and sniff golden tickets to use when prompted by the oompa loompas. Music was provided by a full orchestra, the multi-instrument band DeVotchKa, violinist Sandy Cameron, and pianist Emily Bear.

Punk
La Fiambrera Art Gallery celebrated the 40^th anniversary of the punk movement with a large group exhibition from 1^st December 2017 to the 4^th February 2018. The Punk show was curated by Lindsay Hutton, creator of punk fanzine The Next Big Thing. Josh Agle contributed the acrylic on panel original painting Smash It Up which measured 29cm by 21cm, and cost €3,750. The painting features The Damned, presumably singing the band’s unofficial anthem Smash It Up.