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

As many of you know I’m “setting sail” for Europe for a month long tour with my posters. Here’s a final and complete listing of shows.

Massive Attack at The Warfield

Poster art by Chris Shaw and Chuck Sperry

Tuesday & Wednesday, 24 & 25 May 2010

Firehouse Goldenvoice Series Number 104

Edition of 150

3 colors on archival cream paper

23″ x 35″

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT

Additional stock of this poster will be available through Chris Shaw.

Details will be posted in Expressobean.com forum.

There’s another chance to see American Artifact here in San Francisco, tonight, Wednesday, October 28 at 7 pm.

I’ll be participating in a Q&A after the show. Hope to see you there!

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SAN FRANCISCO DOC FEST, CA:

Wednesday, October 28 (7pm)

Roxie Cinema

3117 16th St.

San Francisco, CA 94103

tickets: $11

The screening 10/28 (7pm). Film screening / Q&A with special guests Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan from Firehouse, Dennis Loren, Winston Smith, Chris Shaw, Paul Imagine, and more.

Well, extremely sad to say, Urlo, Poia and Lu have headed for the airport. The Dark Nouveau Tour was a massive success. I miss my good friends already!!!!

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Vita, the drummer for Ufomammut, was still in town today. George and I drove over to the Mission to get him, and took him over to Alameda for a visit to Jon-Paul Bail’s house and a tour of his Political Gridlock studio. Seemed a good quiet day to chill down from the busy weekend. Went to Ole’s Waffle House for a mid afternoon breakfast and then caught a drink at the Lucky 13 in Alameda. Showed Vita all the cool posters at Lucky 13 Alameda, collected by Dan, the owner of Lucky 13, who made a special trip over to the bar just to say hello to him. Played pinball and drank a couple of good Belgian brews.

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As for Saturday night, Ufomammut and Acid King surpassed my expectations and played just amazingly cool sets, just blew my mind how good the show was. Awesome poster visuals provided by Malleus, Alan Forbes, Dave Hunter, and Firehouse. Justin and Heather played really cool music, perfect for the mood, DJ’ing into Acid King’s masterful and heavy groove. I’m still stunned at the power and grace that drives Acid King – I got swept onto their heavy freight train of metal – and dug the shit out of their entire set. Loved where they were taking me, and was all sweaty at the end.

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I was overjoyed to finally get to witness a live Ufomammut show. Urlo, Poia and Vita played heavy, groovin, doom with modulated soft sections and booming heavy over-drive. Made me so very happy to finally get to meet this side of my friends after knowing only the visual art side of them for over seven years. I’m astonished at how powerful they are with music – and enjoyed every second of their set – and will savor the memory for the rest of my life.

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Varnish was packed full of great people. I want to thank everyone for coming down and supporting the scene! I had the time of my life! Thank you to Varnish Fine Art for hosting my event!

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This morning I called Joey from Acid King to tell him thank you – to him and Lori, and Mark – for such a great show at Varnish Fine Art last Saturday night. He hipped me to Brian Lew’s glowing review of the show on Umlaut. Brian hit the nail on the head when he said, “This will go down as one of my favorite nights of the year!” I want to thank everyone who helped me organize this show and who participated and who came to have a good time.

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After packing all the gear and wrapping at Varnish at 2 am, George and I caught four hours of sleep, met up again at my house at 6 am, and drove over to Golden Gate Park, and started to set up for everyone at Speedway Meadow for the West Fest. We pulled into Speedway Meadow minutes before dawn, and found that our space had been commandeered by our good friends in the Hell’s Angels. Didn’t have a problem with that, and found good lodgings for our booth next door to good friend Chris Shaw and his wife Alex Fischer. Started to set up the table to sell our West Fest Poster Series with Malleus, Dave Hunter, me and Ron Donovan’s posters. Dave was there bright and early. The Malleus boys slept in at my bidding (since they played such a ripping rock show the night before) and Ron, who had just recently arrived home from Hawaii, made every effort to get the posters to the show, so people could get complete sets of posters.

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Going to take the day easy tomorrow. The ever dependable George will meet for coffee in the morning. We’ll return the PA to McCune in South City SF, help search for Acid King’s visual backdrop DVD (we were having a such a good time and forgot this detail), settle the poster details from the show at Varnish, return the gridwall sections, write thank you emails, etc. Take a day to recharge for designing my Dinosaur Jr poster. Think onward to two Widespread Panic posters coming in the Fall. Get cracking on The Young Gods poster. Start to play with designs for The Prodigy who have asked for another design. Schedule printing for Skinny Puppy at the Regency by Zoltron.

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Mail order that backed up while Malleus was here – Tuesday night and in the mail Wednesday

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Ah, I guess it’s back to the drawing board ; )

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Most of all I’ll shed some tears for my Malleus friends. Miss you guys. Hope you arrive safe and sound in Tortona, Italy!

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West Fest 2009

Editon of 200

4 colors on archival cream paper

20″ x 26″

Signed and Numbered

$30 + $7 Shipping