Tag Archives: Shag

Wacko – Los Angeles, CA

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Shag, Tiki Sites and Stores and tagged with , , , ,

Wacko is a kitschy wonderland of a retail space that also encompasses La Luz de Jesus gallery, which I featured in my previous post.

The store is stocked with pop-culture paraphernalia like retro toys, posters, stickers, and Fluff stuff, not to mention tons of art books and other interesting tomes. Prepare to take your time browsing!

There’s sure to be something to suit everyone’s twisted tastes, but of course I made a beeline for the tiki-themed enclave.

There were dashboard hula dancers, tiki figurines and mugs galore, including some of Tiki Farm‘s most recent designs.

And then there were these tiki candles in the incense section against the wall.

Owner Billy Shire is big in the low-brow art scene, so it wasn’t too surprising to stumble upon a stash of Shag prints, including some rarities.

Wacko/Soap Plant
4633 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-663-0122

Shag – Autumn’s Come Undone

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Shag and tagged with , ,

At the end of last year, Shag had a solo exhibition at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City entitled “Autumn’s Come Undone.” It had a pretty short run—only from November 21-December 9.

Black Balloon by Shag

His art often portrays the slightly sordid underbelly of mid-century suburbia, but these works really took on a dark and morbid turn. (Perhaps it was inspired by all the swag he designed for Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion?) Sidenote: I can’t look at this and not think of the Goo Goo Dolls song “Black Balloon,” which also happens to be its name.

The first thing that I’m sure struck most Shag fans was the new color palette. Gone are the super saturated colors and in their place are more sobering shades to match the content. Each giclée was six feet wide, and some of them were assembled together as diptychs and triptychs.

His cast of characters remains mostly the same, but instead of cavorting in retro lounges and the like, they’re assembled in surreal, nightmarish scenes and Apocalyptic landscapes. Also somewhat unusual for Shag, there was basically no tiki imagery. I think the closest thing there was was this pseudo-tiki in “Smudge Pot.”

I think “Lone Star” had the most whimsical and humorous elements out of all the pieces—I especially liked the mechanical bulls and whiskey water.

“Seventh Sea” was another one of my favorites from the exhibition. (Teles and Ligeia were names of two of the sirens from Greek mythology.) Most of the panels also seemed to make references to his previous works, like “The Raft of the Medusa” in this case.

The Untimely Tug and Restricted Flight Path by Shag

I’m sure the official catalog for the show sheds more light on the intentions and themes behind the exhibition, though I don’t really see myself adding it to my Shag collection as I must admit I prefer his more “commercial” art. You can see the exhibition in its entirety on the Corey Helford Gallery site.

Shag Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Product Release

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Events, Shag and tagged with , ,

Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland

I’m interrupting my sizable backlog of summer’s tiki vacation posts to write about the Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland a few weeks ago. I’ve been a fan of Josh Agle‘s for years and you can pretty much trace my love for tiki and retro style back to his art.

Rather than spend the two Benjamins or so to attend the VIP cocktail party the night before, I decided to take my chances with the masses the next morning at The Happiest Place on Earth. I’d read horror stories  about the anniversary product releases for The Enchanted Tiki Room—folks standing in three hour lines to find out that most things were sold out—but I was hoping that The Mouse & Co. would get their act together, and indeed they did.

Lining up outside the Disneyana store

We got there a few minutes after the park opened at 8 a.m. and there was already a large line of people waiting to get in to the Disneyana store. (This was likely due to the fact that on most days of the week, guests of the Disneyland Hotel can get into the park an hour before it officially opens.)

Last stop in the assembly line

There were tons of “cast members” keeping the line organized and passing out print-outs with photos and prices of all the merch so you could figure out what you wanted ahead of time. You then marked off what you wanted, they rang it up and then shuffled you off to another table to collect it.

Shag's Haunted Mansion cookie jar urn, Aloha shirt, tee shirt and lunch bag

We got the lunch bag (shown), postcard set, art matte of the hallway portraits, Shag-inspired Mickey ears hat and the cookie jar urn (shown), which was sold out when I checked back later that day. I thought all the items were designed quite nicely and that everything looked better in person than it did online.

Knowing I would certainly be waiting in at least one long line that day, I hadn’t really intended to get any of the stuff signed as it would involve waiting in another line! However, that queue was significantly shorter than the previous one, so we decided to give it a go.

Shag and I

And I’m glad I did because Shag said he liked my shirt! (A tiki-fied number I’d just gotten from the BouTiki at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.)  🙂

You can see the rest of the Shag-designed stuff for the Haunted Mansion’s 40th Anniversary here—you should definitely check out the paintings at the bottom—plus I have a few more photos after the jump!

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