Jim Shaw (artist)

Jim Shaw is a contemporary American artist, who lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his B.F.A. from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1974 and his M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, in 1978. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA He is married to other Los Angeles based artist, Marnie Weber.

As an art student in Ann Arbor, he helped form the protopunk group Destroy All Monsters along with Mike Kelley, Niagara (artist) and filmmaker Cary Loren in 1973. He left the band in 1976 and played in original line up reunion shows in 1995.

In 2000, he staged a show at the ICA, London, of Thrift Store Paintings—paintings he had collected by (mostly anonymous) amateur artists in America.

Some reactions to this show were:

Adrian Searle (''The Guardian''):''
1) The paintings are awful, indefensible, crapulous….these people can't draw, can't paint; these people should never be left alone with a paintbrush.
2) The Thrift Store Paintings are fascinating, alarming, troubled and funny. Scary too, just like America.
Sarah Kent (''Time Out''):''
Critics professing to be gobsmacked by these efforts can never have seen an amateur art show or walked along the railings of the Bayswater road. They should get out more.