The Flesh Is Willing combined two of the artist’s pictorial interests, nudes and purgatory, in an investigation of 50s cocktail culture and the notion of sin.

This exhibition was inspired by a trip to the Prado in Madrid, where SHAG viewed the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel in person for the first time. Bosch’s work The Garden of Earthly Delights, center panel of his famous triptych depicting Paradise, Earth, and Hell, was of particular interest to the artist. SHAG was struck by Bosch’s grand depiction of the earthly delights and began to analyze the effect of this iconography on modern culture.

The centerpiece of The Flesh Is Willing was a large triptych with the artist’s interpretation of Paradise, Earth, and Hell as seen through consumerism and consumption à la America in the 1950s. SHAG also addressed the implementation of punishment and fear, used as adeterrent against indulgences, with three interactive pieces created from vintage arcade games where users could play and determine in advance what their fate would be.

Josh Agle (better known as SHAG, an acronym of the last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last) is a painter, illustrator, and designer working in Southern California. This was Agle’s first major museum exhibition.