Four Hands, The Drawings of Shag Exhibition

In July 2006 at Comic-Con in San Diego, Eloy RB (founder of Madrid Comics) invited Josh Agle to hold an exposition of his work in Spain to help celebrate their 25^th anniversary. By October 2006 conversations were in progress with Pelayo47, a Madrid art gallery specializing in drawing and photography.

Instead of working in his familiar acrylic on tablex (a high-density fibreboard panel manufactured from eucalyptus with a smooth side and a rough side), Shag chose to create a body of work more fitting with Madrid Comics and the display space. The twenty-four images were drawn using black India ink with one flatly-rendered color on paper. The color is laid down first with special care to preserve the white of the paper; the ink lines are then drawn on.

The Four Hands: the drawings of Shag exhibition was held at Galería Pelayo47 from the 17^th May to the 23^rd May 2007 with Shag attending book signings on the 18^th and 19^th May. Josh Agle also contributed seven drawings at the Estampa contemporary art fair in Madrid several months later in 2007.

The Four Hands: the drawings of Shag showcard can be seen below:

The twenty-four drawings in the Four Hands: the drawings of Shag exhibition are shown below. The cost for each drawing was between $1200 USD to $1800 USD making it some of the most affordable Shag original art to own.

The additional seven drawings sent to the Estampa contemporary art fair in Madrid in 2007 were as follows:

In celebration of the two exhibitions, the Pelayo47 gallery produced an exhibition catalogue in July 2008 through Panamanian publisher Ediciones Balboa to showcase the pieces shown. The catalog was produced in a limited edition of 500 copies, measured 15cm by 15cm, and contained a total of 84 pages.  With stiff colored paper covers, stitched binding and text in Spanish and English, the catalog booklet cost $17.50 Euros. Josh Agle’s work from both exhibitions are included in this booklet, with both a full image and a close-up of a detail – this is to mimic seeing the work in person. The book was printed during the summer of 2008 at the Infoprint workshops in Madrid.

A limited-edition three-colour serigraph print was created for the Four Hands: the drawings of Shag exhibition. Worry Birds was limited to a total of 99 copies, comprising of 33 in each color – orange, green, and purple. The print was sized 33cm x 56cm (13″ x 22″, and was made available exclusively from Madrid Comics.

Many of the drawings from the two exhibitions reflect the themes or elements introduced in previous paintings, for example:

Some drawings were used in later years in paintings or re-drew/re-coloured, examples below.