Published in Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art, February 2023. Jim Shaw’s absurd, off-kilter, edgy paintings and sculptures synthesize an unexpected range of artistic styles – surrealism and pop art, DC comics, political cartoons, movie posters, cult religious iconography, thrift store art and classsical mythology – to create complex visual puns that rhyme in an uncanny way. Shaw told me that he could not settle for a signature  style because he has ” self-diagnosed  ADHA.” He quotes Alfred Jarry, ” To be  weird! That is my goal.” ………..

Shaw’s artworks always  have absurd title which act as a “hook” for the viewer. Since he was a teenager, Shaw was attracted to the crazy humor of Frank Zappa, Monty Python and Luis Bunuel films and told me that he ” wanted to be funny in a more profound way.” Few artists combine such ridiculous  humor with fastidious draftsmanship, painting chops and conceptual complexity; this has made Shaw one of the most influential and visionary L.L. artists from the 1970s.

Link:

https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/unthinkable-at-gagosian-beverly-hills/5675