Curated by Charlotte Laubard
Under the umbrella of author-critique, the schizoid genre of the solo-show-as-group-show became a staple of 1980s art, and Jim Shaw was certainly one of its foremost purveyors. More recently, he has synthesized his multiple influences into a seeming stylelessness, but one that bristles nonetheless with the contradictions of American society. Here, Shaw presents his latest series of monumental set pieces, theatrical arrangements of painterly and sculptural elements that answer to the unsettling aesthetics of the new Christian Right. The now sublime, now abject convulsions of supersize church art reach their zenith in the apocalyptic fantasies of the “left behind”–themed books and films that lend this show its title; alongside these deconstructive tableaux, the artist will exhibit, from his private collection, religious artifacts that eagerly anticipate the end-time.
