Josh Agle (born August 31, 1962) is an American artist, better known by the nickname Shag.

Early life and education

Josh Agle was born August 31, 1962, the first of nine children in Sierra Madre, California. He spent his early childhood in Hawaii, and later moved with his family to Los Angeles. While Agle was attending high school, his family moved to Utah. In the mid-1980s, he returned to California, to study economics and architecture at California State University, Long Beach.

Career

While at CSULB, Agle changed his major to graphic design and achieved his first successes as an illustrator while in college, with work for the magazines Forbes, Time and Entertainment Weekly. Also, he designed record covers for bands in the area. When he designed a cover for his own band, the Swamp Zombies, he first used the pseudonym Shag, composed of the last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his surname, so as not to make it look as if the cover artist was merely a band member, but that the band was successful enough to hire a graphic designer. and his first New York gallery show in 2002. In 2010, he opened a "SHAG Store" in Palm Springs, which sells merchandise depicting Agle's works. He is also known for designing Tiki mugs.

Shag has designed projects for The Walt Disney Company and the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, as well as a 100-foot-long mural in the Georgia Aquarium.

Selected books

thumb|right|Poster for the 2017 [[Surfer Joe Summer Festival, featuring Shag's distinctive artwork]]

Museum exhibitions and collections

  • 2010 - Art Shack, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
  • 2009 - Urban Superstars, Naples Museum of Modern Art, Naples, Italy
  • 2008 - Beyond Baby Tattooville, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California
  • 2008 - In The Land of Retinal Delights, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
  • 2007 - The Flesh Is Willing: New Work by Shag, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
  • 2007 - Rome Is Burning, Haas Fine Arts Center, Eau Claire, Wisconsin
  • 2005 - Pop Surrealism, Sangre De Cristo Art Center, Pueblo, Colorado
  • 2005 - Paradirama, Musee International des Arts Modestes, Sète, France
  • 2002 - The Sophisticated Misfit: Fifteen Years of Shag, Brea Museum, Brea, California
  • 2000 - Lowbrow Art: Up From The Underground, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, Florida

See also

  • Lowbrow (art movement)

References

  • Shag at M Modern Gallery
  • The Shag store
  • ModCulture.com Interview with Josh "Shag" Agle
  • KittyKitty Interviews the Artists - Shag
  • Josh Agle at Jonathan LeVine Gallery
  • Shagwatch - Archiving exhibits, news articles and tracking the history of resold original paintings by Shag
  • Josh Agle Unauthorised - A gallery for the work of mid-century modernist artist Shag