Jim Shaw — Archives — Chalet Society — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 24, 2013 → January 24, 2014

The second exhibition is curated by Jim Shaw, an extraordinary Californian artist who, over the last forty years, has produced incredible paintings, drawings, videos, installations and performances. He is also a compulsive collector, constantly on the hunt for pop culture pieces, comic books, rock music, B movies and amateur paintings in thrift stores or on the internet.

Jim Shaw won’t be displaying his own artwork or his famous “thrift store paintings”, but instead the archives that account for his main source of inspiration. These archives will be accompanied by special loans from different collections. The Chalet Society gives visitors the chance to dive into an overflowing and illuminated world of paintings, sculptures, brochures, tshirts, books, CDs and educational illustrations that recycle the myths and beliefs of America and beyond.

Sects, secret societies, far-fetched orders and fraternities, evangelical movements, Christian fundamentalists, New Age spiritualists, scientologists, Mormons, Jehovah’s witnesses, Masonic followers, all kinds of conspirators, extreme conservatives from the John Birch Society, educational books and encyclopaedias for children and even Dr. Netter’s famous medical illustrations — all the symbolic imagery and unclassifiable designs by often anonymous artists for specific commissions to be on show.

Jim Shaw, The Harvest Period And The Close of Probation, 1932-1944 Linen banner Collection of Jim Shaw, Los Angeles — Photo : LeeAnn Nickel, Los Angeles

“The Chalet Society is thus pursuing the premise of its programming. After outsider artists, the boundaries are pushed back to reveal artists that have often got lost behind their intentions. The carte blanche that Jim Shaw has been given enables him to play with the boxes which art sometimes gets put in and test his eclecticism, his versatility and his ability to provide unexpected areas of expertise.”

Marc-Olivier Wahler.