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Sculptures

Josh Agle (Shag) is known for his popular paintings and commercial merchandising, less well known are his sculptures. This post covers Shag’s sculptures including group shows, unique original pieces, and limited editions.

In spring 2001 and summer 2002, Shag collaborated with Whoopi Goldberg to paint an angel statue, named 31 cats, to join the hundreds around the city of Los Angeles as part of the A Community of Angels art exhibit. Two books were also produced to celebrate (or possibly catalogue) the event.

In 2003 Shag released the Object d’Art sculpture in a limited edition of 100 pieces. House Industries manufactured the sculpture from lacquered wood. Object d’Art can be seen in the Productivity Program print, the centre part of the House Industries The Extended Business Meeting triptych. The sculpture is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity tag, is sized 16.5” tall by 8” wide, and originally cost $200 USD.In 2008 Shag created three fish sculptures for the Voyeur: New Paintings by Shag exhibition at the Jonathan LeVine Projects gallery. The three hand carved and hand painted wood sculptures are (left to right below) sized 21”x10” (fish sculpture 1), 19”x11” (fish sculpture 2) and 22”x13.5” (fish sculpture 3).

In 2012 Shag created Pecking Order, a set of three bird sculptures and a twelve-colour hand-pulled serigraph print. Shag created the original sculptures in 2002 to fill three fireplace niches (below right), and they appear in the book Shag: The Art of Josh Agle. The set was released in July 2012 in a limited edition of 100 pieces, each with a numbered label under the base and a price of $750 USD. The sculptures sold out in two days following an e-mail to Shag the Store and M Modern Gallery customers.

The three resin and wood sculptures have metal legs and marble bases, and are finished in a hand-rubbed silver/gunmetal grey patina. The back side of each sculpture is flat, and they are sized:

  • Short Bird Size: 12” tall, 12” wide, 3” deep (including marble base)
  • Medium Bird Size: 14” tall, 11” wide, 3” deep (including marble base)
  • Tall Bird Size: 19” tall, 11” wide, 3” deep (including marble base)

In 2013 Shag designed two new sculptures, Desert Cat and Cactus. These unique sculptures were sold through the Shag Store with a Shag print for $3500 USD. The sculptures are made of welded steel and patina copper and sized 32”x10”x6” for the cat and 39”x16”x5” for the cactus.In 2014 Shag released the Phaedra sculpture, a limited edition of 100 pieces. This is the first sculpture released by the Mod Fab Group and is sized 60” high with a diameter of 14″. Each sculpture is hand-made from thick, polyester resin composite and is suitable for indoor or outdoor use. Phaedra has an inscribed stainless steel ID tag, a certificate of authenticity, and includes an exclusive serigraph print.

The sculpture is structurally integrated with an 8” long by 1.5” diameter stainless steel pole protruding from the bottom for fitting. The pole enables the sculpture to be installed on a free-floating stand, a standard umbrella stand, a buried standard umbrella stand or embedded in concrete. The print included with each sculpture includes a self-portrait of Shag at a blank canvas. Shag sketched a unique picture into the blank canvas on each print, effectively making this original art.Shag also released the mini Phaedra sculpture in 2014 which is a smaller sculpture from the Josh Agle Objects range by Mod Fab Group. The mini Phaedra sculpture is moulded in ceramic bisque and fired with a satin glaze with the elliptical base made from red/orange paduak wood. Limited to 100 pieces, each sculpture has an inscribed stainless steel ID tag and is sized 21.5” high with a base of 6” by 4”. An exclusive orange and black version was available from the Palm Springs Art Museum and Architectural Design Centre.In October 2015 Shag released Cyclops, a sculpture engineered from printed, engineered wood and released at MOD Palm Springs in a limited edition of 50 pieces. The sculpture has a signed, and numbered hand tag by Shag and is sized 18” high, 7” wide and a depth of 3.5”. The original cost was $375 USD or $325 USD for MOD 2015 attendees.And to end this post, a non-Shag piece. Artist Cherry Capri designed and created a sculpture to feature outside the Shag Store for the 2012 Palm Springs Modernism Weekend. This white sculpture was installed outside the Shag Store in Palm Springs, California. The sculpture was later painted orange which better fits with the mid-modern style of the store.

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