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V1 SALON is pleased to present
Honky Tonk Angels
A solo exhibition by Jeremy Shockley
August 6 – 15, 2026
The exhibition title is derived from the trailblazing feminist country song; It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels by Kitty Wells (1952). The song was a response to earlier songs that blamed women for going to gritty country bars, honky tonks, and leading married men astray. Wells flipped this accusation, implying that the that the truth was quite the opposite. Shockley, however, strips the phrase of its moral framing and treats it as evocative imagery, imagining the divine mingling with the gritty. This juxtaposition set the stage for his strange image-world — a place where literal Angels might be seen wandering into honky tonks.
In Shockley’s paintings, the supernatural — the angels — is embedded within the real — the honky tonks. To achieve this liminal expression, he draws on the art historical tradition of trompe-l'œil (French for “deceiving the eye”). As a technique, it has long been a measure of artistic virtuously: to paint so convincingly that the viewer can’t distinguish between the painting and reality. Pliny the Elder recounts the importance of realism in Natural History (77) through the famous competition between two late 5th century BC Greek artists Zeuxis and Parrhasius. Zeuxis painted grapes so lifelike that birds flew toward the painting, this was a testament to his mastery. The spectators then awaited Parrhasius’ entry, which appeared to be covered underneath a draped curtain. Zeuxis demanded the curtain be drawn aside, only to realise his mistake: the curtain itself was painted on the canvas. Fooled by the illusion, Zeuxis conceded defeat, and Parrhasius was declared victorious (Pliny, Natural History, p. 251).
Shockley’s trompe-l'œil works are uncanny, magical and humorous. Even when the pictural illusion deceives our eye, we remain uncertain of what we are seeing. His paintings appear real, yet we know they can’t be – there can’t be a person staring at us through holes in the canvas… can there? Traditionally, trompe-l'œil has often been used on church ceilings, blending its architecture into divine scenery. Similarly, by bleeding his fantastical worlds into our reality, Shockley’s paintings invite us to come along, across the threshold of the frame and into another realm where magical elements exist; where the fabric of the universe is stabled to a frame and lifted on the back of a skeleton.
Jeremy Shockley is born in 1982, Travelers Rest, South Carolina. He lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Shockley has mounted solo or duo exhibitions at Red Arrow (US, 2025); The Office (US, 2024); Yves Saint Laurent (US, 2024); Piermarq* (AU, 2024); Moosey (UK, 2023), The Hole (USA, 2022), and V1 Gallery (DK, 2019). As well as recent group shows at Dominique Porter Gallery (US, 2026); The Hole (US, 2026); Moosey (UK, 2026); and V1 Gallery (DK, 2025). Honky Tonk Angels is Jeremy Shockley’s second solo exhibition with V1 Gallery.