Jim Shaw

Dismembered human forms are the common theme in Jim Shaw’s exhibition of new work that opens at Metro Pictures November 30th. Among the paintings, sculptures and drawings in the exhibition is an 11 x 15 foot painting inspired by the 1965 Vincent Price film “Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine." Painted on top of a pastoral backdrop from an old Hollywood soundstage, Shaw merges a likeness of Price composed of female nudes in a kitsch/surrealist fashion with a self-portrait - both done in his signature “ripped-up” illustrative style. With logic befitting the artist the painting is joined with a pair of ceramic feet placed squarely in front.

Continuing his series of "Dream Objects" (recreations of objects and artworks that appeared in his dreams), Shaw will show a group of sculptures that take the form of body parts as home décor. The hybrids include an ear couch covered in blue velvet, nose wall sconces, butt-head stools and a digestive-tract wall sculpture.

The exhibition will reopen at the start of the new year transformed by Shaw. Adding to the existing scene, he will bring in works drawn from ideas he previously rejected as “undesirable."

Jim Shaw has exhibited widely in the US and internationally since the late 1980s. Among his previous series are “My Mirage” (1985-1990) which follows the experiences of a fictional boy named Billy as he grows up during the 1960s and 70s; “Dream Drawings” and “Dream Objects,” (1991-present) featuring recreated imagery and art objects from the artist’s dreams; and works defining the evolution, dogmas and rites of his ficticious religion "Oism" (2000 to present).

Recent solo shows include PS1, New York ("The Donner Party"); Magasin Center of Contemporary Art, Grenoble; and Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland. Recent important group exhibitions include "Eden's Edge: Fifteen LA Artists," Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; "Red Eye: LA Artists from the Rubell Family Collection," Miami; "Los Angeles-Paris," Centre Pompidou, Paris.