Jim Shaw

1952, Midland, US
He lives and works in Los Angeles, USA

site-specific | permanent artwork

The Alexander Romances

2024
Acrylic on a muslin backdrop, acrylic on wood panels, and decorative wood molding

An artist with an encyclopedic, chaotic, and schizoid body of work inspired by Burroughs’ cut-up method, Shaw blurs the lines between the mainstream and the underground, mingling TV, comics, the Bible, horror films, heavy metal, gore, punk, and psychedelia. A hypertrophic panorama of themes is conveyed through an equally heterogeneous mix of styles and visual languages, always seeking a reasonable correspondence between technique and narrative content.

Taking inspiration from the myth of Alexander the Great, Jim Shaw produced a painting for the ceiling of Palazzo Diedo depicting Alexander’s anointment as the son of the God Amun in the temple at the Siwa Oasis, using an old Egyptian theater set canvas as the base. The central image, where his hyperrealist style overlaps with the original backdrop of the canvas, is surrounded by a frame of grotesques rich in symbols reminiscent of Bruegel. These symbols represent the mean and fantastical creatures that Alexander the Great during his quest to conquer the world.

Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery