Leaping Lounge Lizards, It’s Shag!
It’s a no longer a secret that Shag is the main hipster artist behind the big retro lounge revival currently hitting our culture with the force of a Polynesian typhoon. Are capri pants back in? You betcha, along with Audrey Hepburn "do’s", tiki’s, cocktails with little paper umbrellas and the Jet Set. In short, the tiki culture of Shag is where secret agents hobnob with cool chicks on scooters, where jet setting hipsters hook up with Shriners and Polynesian Icons, lounging on Jetsons furniture, sipping a never-ending cascade of tropical drinks and martinis. British slang-a-go-go is definitely the nomenclature of the day.
So, who is this secret agent man behind this hip revival? It’s Josh Agle, of course. Take the last two letters of his first name and combine with the first two letters of his last name and you’ve got the recipe for Shag.
He’s everywhere it would seem: books, purses, clothing, decals, stools, lamps, posters, magazines, organizers, Hollywood Squares (Whoopie Goldberg, an admirer and client regularly displays his Cat Paintings in her square). Shag has also been in negotiation with Universal about an animated series, "Spy Lounge".
Shag recalls going to drive-in movies and how the suave super agents, gadgets, fast sports cars and underground lairs of the James Bond films really appealed to him. He wanted to live that life and he does through his art.
Raised in a strict Mormon family, Shag spent his formative years bouncing around California, Hawaii and Utah. He credits his Mormon high school in Utah with instilling in him a strong work ethic because, he says, he spent sixty hours a week doing school work. Today, even though he’s married - with a young daughter, Shag still finds time to paint almost seven days a week.
After leaving Cal State Long Beach where he had studied to be an accountant (his father and his twin brother are both accountants), he began his career as a commercial artist doing various illustrations for magazines and record covers. In 1989 he became the art director for the punk label Doctor Dream. Later, he helped to start his own label, Mai Tai Records which distributed old ‘60s surf music, "B" movie soundtracks and the kind of lounge friendly exotica that you could find in those old 007 movies. The label, like Doctor Dream, was eventually swallowed up by Polygram Records.
As his commercial art became more and more popular, people began clamoring for originals. Finally in 1995 he gave in to popular demand and began painting unique pieces. Wanting his originals to remain "one of a kind", Shag hesitated reproducing his paintings as serigraphs and lithographs, but of course, eventually he did and today his work is reproduced by a number of respected publishers.
Josh augmented his work as an artist with playing in various bands, going as far back as the mid-eighties with the garage band The Swamp Zombies. However, one casualty of Shag’s success is that he had to abandon any hope of being a rock star. He opted out of his surf band, The Tiki Tones and the Huntington Cads disbanded as well a few years ago.
These days, demand for Shag originals seems to out distance supply. La Luz de Jesus Gallery says they have a waiting list fifty people long waiting to plunk down some serious dosh for one of his paintings. He has sold out shows (many almost before the doors open) all over in places as diverse as Spain and Germany and has had one-man exhibitions in such prominent galleries as Outre Gallery in Melbourne, La Luz de Jesus in Hollywood and BGH Gallery in Santa Monica.
A major retrospective of his work entitled "Sophisticated Misfits" was shown at the Brea Museum in Orange County this year as well as a solo show in Tokyo, Japan.
Commercially, Shag’s illustrations have appeared in such media as Time, Entertainment Weekly and Forbes. Most recently, Shag has been spotlighted in The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Barracuda, House Industries and Lucky Magazine (a shopping magazine brought to you by the people at Vogue).
At Poster Pop, we are excited to bring this hot, hip artist to you on our hughest quality stickers, hats, patches, t’shirts and baby dolls. As everything SHAG has created, we at Poster Pop say, "Collect them All!!!".
Bio ©Gail Benzler 2001 |
