Ensemble

Since his studies at the CalArts/California Institute of the Arts in the 1970s, drawing has occupied an important place in Jim Shaw's artistic practice. Yet during that period, the emphasis was mainly on non-figurative and conceptual art. As a true professional, Shaw masters observational drawing and drawing based on photographic material. With the series 'Dream Drawings', he focuses on putting a drawing on paper directly from his imagination. Central to the exhibition is a selection of more than 100 studio drawings that Jim Shaw made over the past decade. With a combination of detailed preliminary studies of paintings and ideas quickly put on paper, this overview provides an intimate insight into Shaw's creative and conceptual process. It sketches, as it were, the artist's mental landscape over the past ten years. Shaw mixes recognisable and absurd images, digging into American culture and politics, and revealing more than ever the growing friction between conservative and progressive thinking.