One of the cool places (… literally … A/C on … cool) we went to during our last Palm Springs trip was to the Shag store and gallery. It’s very small — you can stand in the center of the room and “see” it all in a flash — but we walked all the way around the room and took a longer look at each of his fun, midcentury-modern-themed art works.
Shag (Josh Agle) is an illustrator and artist whose pieces were originally meant to be commercial, but were quickly nabbed up by collectors and elevated to pieces that people just wanted to collect … and show. Some of his illustrations can be disturbing — men are often portrayed as wolves, preying upon beautiful women, and there’s a lot of garish excess shown off in his illustrations — but his original spirit is always still there, and the rest of his illustrations are still simply focused on fun.
He clearly has all the same loves my husband does: midcentury modern, tiki culture, surfing, Southern California. And those always come through. (I read that he lives in a midcentury modern house in the hills of L.A.) There was a neat collection of “Zodiac” paintings in the store (Cancer woman, Aquaries, etc. — all portrayed in midcentury settings) that I really liked. And there’s a classic one of Palm Springs (complete with guy in Hawaiian shirt and the aerial tramway) that my husband reeeeeeally has his eye on. I’m sure it’s going to show up in our bedroom someday. (It’s “Desert Polynesia” — totally reminds us of our Caliente Tropics visits!)
It was fun to walk through the gallery and store and look at several pieces at once. He also has three books out now.
If you like midcentury modern, and are in Palm Springs, be sure to stop here: