Jim Shaw

A recognized icon of the Los Angeles art scene since the 1970s, Jim Shaw has become one of the United States’ most influential and visionary artists, moving between painting, sculpture, and drawing, and building connections between his own psyche and America’s larger political, social, and spiritual histories. Shaw mines his imagery from the cultural refuse of the twentieth century, using comic books, record covers, conspiracy magazines, and obscure religious iconography to produce a portrait of the nation’s subconscious.  

Shaw has had major solo exhibitions at the Chalet Society in Paris, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, and Casino-Luxembourg Forum d’Art contemporain. His work has been featured in a number of important international group exhibitions, including “The Encyclopedic Palace: 55th International Art Exhibition,” at the 2013 Venice Biennale, “Sunshine & Noir: Art in L.A., 1990–1997” at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, “Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s” at LA MOCA, and the 1991 and 2002 Whitney Biennials, among others.

Courtesy of the New Museum