Faya Gallery, 211 Elizabeth Street, New York City, has invited Chris Shaw, Chuck Sperry and Peter LeCompte to exhibit their newest work through the month of September. The opening is on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 at 6pm to 9pm. Sperry will be showing his newest poster work, Chris Shaw will be showing his newest paintings, and Peter LeCompte will show his newest hand-painted silkscreen pieces.

This exhibition is a fusion of the rock poster aesthetic and fine art.

In Chris Shaw’s work the rock poster aesthetic informs the painting medium; there is a mash-up of bold psychedelic poster stylings with very painterly techniques informed by Renaissance styles of picture-making and subject matter.

Peter LeCompte is like a DJ who orchestrates pre-arranged musical samples into a continuous mix while also highlighting their obscure connotations. Le Compte juggles memory and color into what appear to be the solidified icons of a recovered happiness – they hark back to the more anxiety-free days of our collective pre-Vietnam war childhood.

Chuck Sperry brings his masterfully created silkscreened rock posters, resonating with the styles drawn from the poster art form’s long tradition – ranging from the roots of the poster tradition in Art Nouveau and Vienna Secession style to Psychedelic, Rock, Punk, Post-Punk, Grunge, Stoner and Pop. In Sperry’s work you can trace the history of the poster medium from the end of the 19th Century to the beginning of the 21st.

Photo Credit: Mike Abramson

This Friday is going to be all about celebrating the creative talent that has come out of the East Bay for the past decade. There are two shows opening this friday as part of the East Bay Express’ “Best of the East Bay” Party. “A Decade with No Name” and “If These Walls Could Talk”. Hangar 18 Artists – Emory Douglas, Chuck Sperry, Ron Donovan, Chris Shaw, Alexandra Fischer, Reuben Rude, Dave Hunter, Alan Hynes, Jon-Paul Bail, Scott Johnson, Frank Zio and Zoltron - were invited to participate (see list and links below).

A Decade with no Name is going to be a group show of 22 artists who work in a variety of mediums. As the facebook event describes it: “A multi-disciplinary look into the works currently being created in our collective backyard, “The Decade With No Name” serves as a celebration of the sculptors, painters, photographers and street artists who call Oakland, Berkeley and the greater East Bay their home”

Pictures are borrowed from the artists websites.

Occurring simultaneously outdoors, “If These Walls Could Talk” will feature a live showcase of aerosol art by Bay Area legends Chor Boogie, Apex and Eon75 with additional support from Los Angeles’ Dabs/Myla and Surge. All six artists will be working on live graffiti murals during the event.

The Hangar 18 artists will have a Poster Kiosk right across from the Graffiti Mural.

Check out the Facebook event for more details, this is all going on:

Jack London Square
Friday August 6th
5:00pm – 11:00pm

The Gallery is across from the Main Stage.

Participating Artists for “A Decade With No Name”:

Eddie Colla – http://eddiecolla.wordpress.com/
Zoltron – http://zoltron.com/
GATS – http://www.flickr.com/groups/graffitiagainstthesystem/
Ras Terms – http://www.myspace.com/rasterms
Monica Canilao – http://www.monicacanilao.com/
Meagan Donegan – http://meagandonegan.com/home.html
Annie Vought – http://annievought.com/
Scott Hove – http://www.mshove.com/
Peter Gronquist – http://www.petergronquist.com/
Owen Cook – http://theeowencook.com/
Brett Amory – http://www.brettamory.com/
Alika Cooper – http://www.alikacooper.com/
Brendan Monroe – http://www.brendanmonroe.com/
Aaron Nagel – http://www.aaronnagel.com/
Skinner – http://www.theartofskinner.com/
David D’Andrea – http://www.dvdandrea.com/
Dave Correia – http://www.playwithknives.com/
Jason Vivona – http://www.jasonvivona.com/
Deth P. Sun – http://www.dethpsun.com/
John Felix Arnold – http://www.theothersideofasmile.info/
Amanda Lopez – http://www.amandalopezphoto.com/
John Coyne – http://www.caughtinthescramble.com/

Poster Art / Hangar18 Showcase:
Emory Douglas – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Douglas
Chuck Sperry – http://chucksperry.net/
Ron Donovan – http://rondonovan.net/
Reuben Rude – http://www.reubenrude.com/
Dave Hunter – http://gammalyte.com/blog/
Chris Shaw – http://homepage.mac.com/c.shaw/Menu5.html
Jon-Paul Bail – http://www.gridlock.bigcartel.com/
Alexandra Fischer – http://www.facebook.com/Afishcalledalex
Alan Hynes – http://omgposters.com/2009/07/30/ten-questions-with-alan-hynes/
Scott Johnson – http://www.scottyjprints.com/
Frank Zio – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frank-Zio/95871445028

Participating Artists for “If These Walls Could Talk”:
Chor Boogie – http://www.chorboogie.com/
Apex – http://www.vimby.com/video/art/us/all/detail/9695
Eon75 – http://maxehrman.carbonmade.com/
Dabs & Myla – http://www.dabsmyla.com/
Surge

What a big day! With our visit to Item still firing our imaginations, Ron and I hopped a train to Marseille to visit our very dear friend Claire. Claire met us at Cafe Danaides with a group of old friends and we made a plan to see San Francisco band, Lords of Altamont, who were coincidentally playing that night at l’Embobineuse a cool punk rock watering-hole. Bonus, Pakito Bolino of Le Dernier Cri – the masterful silkscreen printer, film-maker and book publisher was showing new works at the club too! Now that is timing.

The festivities opened with anarchic rockers Daniel Burros:

Lords of Altamont. Keyboard went on the blink – so they rocked out while Ron and I supplied fresh beers…

Pakito Bolino, me and Ron

Next day Claire and Indra picked us up to go to Danielle Jacqui’s studio, then on to Danielle’s home for a delicious home-cooked dinner. Danielle has been incredibly prolific in the years we have missed visiting with her. She is in the process of making a monumental work of ceramic art in pieces which will be constructed into an enormous building in a park outside Marseille in the village of Auberge. The pieces are assembled on the floor and numbered, packed away to make room for the next huge outpouring of amazing art! Danielle is the most inspiring artist! The picture below represents a fraction of the total, monumental work of art, all created over a two year period. (Click image to see larger) Unbelievable!

Our little tradition – when visiting Danielle – is that we bring dessert…

Danielle’s beautiful works on paper

Danielle sews these most imaginative dolls and writes beautiful poems – there is no end to her creativity!

Thank you Danielle for such a delicious dinner and deeply inspiring visit! Your art is hanging on my wall in my studio to guide me!

—-

And after all this we went swimming from the rocky coast at Cassis, had a light meal and a walk home past some graffiti to Claire’s.

Alexandre D’Huy and I broke away from The Original Sticker Story at rue Ternaux, for a beer in the afternoon at Les Nuns. I wanted to show him the string that was probably still hanging in Les Nuns, from 2004 the night we met. We arrived there and sure enough the string Ron and I put up at Les Nuns to hang posters from was still there. David, the bartender from Au Petit Garage, right down the street was stopping by Les Nuns to talk to a friend, and invited us over to Au Petit Garage for a drink. And wouldn’t you know it, there was the poster for The Art of Modern Rock opening that Ron and me and Lindsey Kuhn hung on the wall from five years ago.

David asked me and Alex if we would like to do a show the following night. And of course, the answer was YES! We had a great time! Lots of old friends showed for the fun. Was great to see Olivier Votelet and wife Marion and all the cool folks that inhabit the 11th of Paris. Thanks David! Hope to come back again real soon.

After making our show for a week at the Glastonbury Music Festival, Ron and I took the long train ride to Paris from Bristol. We had been out of contact for a week or more and we were driven to show up right on time for our big Paris show at Sesame, the restaurant / gallery owned by our very dear friend Lena Balacco, at 51 quai de Valmy, Paris 75010. Good news, Lena has extended our very successful show at Sesame until September 6th, 2010.

We arrived by cab just in time. Lena gave me a running hug that just about knocked me over! The show looked beautiful! What a fantastic night! It was so great to catch up with all my old friends there. Lena and her husband Charles Mammarot and their daughter (my adorable God-daughter Elvis) have made such a beautiful life here at the edge of the canal St. Martin. We stayed here in Paris for a week, and really fell into a sweet life, hanging out with Lena and Charles and brother Jin Balacco, criss-crossing Paris on moped, playing petanque in the square nearby, having great dinners, visiting old friends, like my very good friend Alexandre D’Huy and his girlfriend Atsoupe. Here’s some pictures of the show, life with Charles and Lena and fun evenings at the edge of the canal.

Jin and Lena – Sesame and show (click image for larger view):

Lena enjoying drinks by the canal with Sesame in the background (Psychedelic Secession poster visible in window):

Family portrait at the flea market near Republique. I bought my girlfriend Nancy a cool jewel box here from the time of Napoleon III:

View of the canal in front of Sesame:

Alexandre D’Huy – we made a couple of spontaneous shows with Alex while we were staying in Paris (see the next posts):

Nothing compares to great conversation at the end of every night with Charles and a few glasses of pastis:

And nothing goes better with pastis than petanque in the park. Ron draws a picture in the sand with Elvis while Charles throws a ball into the trees: