Parlour Games Exhibition
In 2014 Josh Agle traveled to Australia for a three-city Outré Gallery solo exhibition tour. The exhibition Parlour Games was held at:
- Perth from 17th October to the 9th November 2014 with a book signing on the 18th October
- Melbourne from 24th October to the 13th November 2014 with a book signing on the 25th October
- Sydney from 31st October to the 16th November with a book signing on the 1st of November.
The Parlour Games exhibition featured sixteen original paintings and a selection of limited edition prints. The theme for the show is a study of traditional well-known board games in Shag’s inimitable style.
In The Wrong Game, a pipe-smoking man suggests the 1933 Hasbro Monopoly game to a fearful party of relaxing friends. The 1964 Marx Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots game is being played by a couple in front of an enthusiastic crowd in Queensbury’s Rules. I have no idea on the story in Le Jeu d’Echec (the failed game) where Dr. Scorpio (?) plays Chess with a naked lady while another, well-dressed, looks on.
In A Friendly Wager, four immaculately dressed people bet on a game of the 1967 Ideal Toy Company classic KerPlunk. Three young ladies play Mystery Date, a 1965 board game from the Milton Bradley Company, in Mysterious Caller whilst a fourth prepares to go out on a date with a silhouetted suitor waiting with flowers outside the front door. The Eye of Zohar shows two people playing 1967 Transogram game Ka-Bala, with a glowing central eye of Zohar plastic spinning eyeball, watched by three cats.
The 1972 Parker Brothers’ game Boggle is being played in The Chronographer whilst the timekeeper holds the three-minute sand timer. In The Sweet Life a pair of young ladies play the 1949 Milton Bradley Company board game Candy Land. A girl wearing a cat costume (who we see again in the 2016 Primal Cuts painting), happily plays the 1963 Ideal game Mouse Trap with a pensive man in 8 1/2 Lives.
The tired looking man in The Apologist suggests a game of W.H. Storey & Co’s 1929 game Sorry! to an unimpressed lady. In The Battle Sisters, two young ladies play the 1667 Milton Bradley game Battleship. The Go Girl seems to be rejecting a game of Go, a two thousand five hundred year-old abstract strategy board game.
The final four original acrylic and vinyl panel paintings each feature a young lady cradling a playing piece.
Additionally, a number of limited edition prints were shown at the three galleries of the exhibition tour. These included a 2005 artist proof of the 12-color hand-pulled serigraph print West Coast Jazz.
The classic games featured in the Parlour Games exhibition at the Outré Gallery tour deserve a few original photographs. Included below are the twelve games that feature in the paintings.
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