Jim Shaw’s Mixed Media Piece for the 55th Venice Biennale

Famous as a collector of American junk, including a trove of thrift store paintings once sought by art collector Charles Saatchi, Jim Shaw draws on his vast stores of pop cultural artifacts in his work. The My Mirage (1986–91) project comprises nearly 170 drawings, silkscreens, photographs, sculptures, films, and paintings based on a Shaw stand-in called Billy, who grows from childhood to psychosis to born-again Christianity. Read more.

Photo by Francesco Galli, courtesy of la Biennale di Venezia