Chuck Sperry

Archives for February 2023

By

Artists 4 ERA at Virginia Museum of History & Culture

Artists4ERA: Virginia Edition
February 17 – (extended to) June 4, 2023 
Virginia Museum of History & Culture • Richmond, Virginia 

About the Exhibit:

The founding ideal of the United States that “all men are created equal” has not always been a reality. People of color, women, Americans with disabilities, and other groups have had to fight for equal rights. 

In 2020, Virginia became the 38th and final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)—the culmination of a century-long battle for women’s equality. Artists4ERA is part of ongoing efforts to ensure that the ERA becomes the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Participating artists from across the country have created images to raise awareness about the ERA and to promote gender equality. 

This exhibit features 28 original works of art from the Artists4ERA collection, including 20 designs by Virginia artists. The vitality and diversity of these pieces embody an enduring commitment to a Constitution that guarantees equality for all. 

Artists: Crudcity, Evergib, Faithe Norrell, Haadia Khan, Hamilton Glass, Jess Walters, Jowarnise, Mahari Chabwera, Meme, Michael-Birch Pierce, Nico Cathcart, Noah Scalin, Pete Morelewicz, Rachel Welsh de Iga, Roshi K, Sam Skrimpz, Silly Genius, Ashley Hawkins / Studio Two Three, Amir Khadar, Chuck Sperry, Claudia “Claw Money” Gold, Deedee Cheriel, Ferris Plock, Kelly Tunstall,  Shepard Fairly, Sophia Pineda, Tara McPherson, Tracie Ching

Posters are available at the opening and online HERE

Tickets for the Museum Gala Opening are required to attend. There’s a limited number of tickets available so don’t miss out. Purchase HERE

Here below, Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger presents US Congressional ERA lead sponsor Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley with my “Equal Rights, Flower of Democracy” poster on behalf of Vote Equality and Artists 4 ERA, and announces the Artists 4 ERA exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

 

I will not be able to attend the opening, but I have partnered with Artists 4 ERA and Vote Equality for a special surprise!

Thanks to Three Notch’d Brewing Company and their support of gender equality, the brewer teamed up with Artists4ERA to create “Joyful Ruckus” IPA to celebrate the upcoming exhibit at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture. I am honored to donate my “Flower of Democracy” design for this limited edition beverage which will be available at the Opening Gala event of “Artists4ERA: Virginia Edition” on February 17th.

Artists4ERA is organized by VoteEquality, a grass roots, non-partisan organization working to guarantee equality for all Americans by enshrining the Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. 

By

Edwardian Ball 2023 Poster

Edwardian Ball 2023
21 x 35
Edition of 250
5 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out – Thank You!

________________

This poster is officially available at the show in SF. I will be making a very limited online release of this poster on Sunday, February 5, 2023 between 9-10 am PST.

________________

It’s Edwardian Ball time again, and as always, it’s a great pleasure to work with Justin Katz, the Edwardian Ball impresario, and once again I had a lot of fun making this poster!

My Edwardian Ball posters always have an edge of social critique in them. They are done with a wink and a nod, in keeping with the enjoyment of attending such an elaborate period pageant.

Most of the attendees also realize that the Edwardian era was one of unabashed and ostentatious oligarchy, unrivaled economic imperialism and a presumed European superiority complex. It’s all of these things that makes the period so bizarre to us today. I’ve always endeavored to reveal this outrageous and bizarre sense of imperial entitlement in my Edwardian Ball posters, and keep them wild and fun.

I try to channel the spirit of our age in a non-linear way with each year’s Edwardian Ball poster, making allegory, or touching a simple parallel between our 21st Century experience and the far-away world of Edwardian “Society.” 

This year’s poster is a portrait of the Edwardian Era’s namesake: King Edward VII. Edward was a cad’s cad. The moral of his story is one of the bilious poison of the privileged life of an ill-moralled emperor. The poison will get you in the end.

Known as “Dirty Bertie”, Edward spent every spare moment during the 20 years before ascending the throne in 1901 patronizing every bordello in Paris. His favorite establishment Le Cabanais had a reserved room for the future emperor-king complete with his coat-of-arms over his bed. Edward lodged there with his own elegant copper bathtub fashioned into an oddly shaped half-woman, half-swan (Salvador Dali later purchased Edward’s tub of ill-repute). He was keen to fill his tub with champagne. You heard that right, he bathed in champagne.

Edward was quite the inveterate blue-blooded, demi-monde and spent every night in a variety of Paris’ nightclubs in and around Montmartre, especially the legendary Moulin Rouge. If you made the scene in the Paris of the 1880’s and 90’s you would have eventually rubbed shoulders (or perhaps some body part) with the debauched future King of the British Empire. 

I shouldn’t say that Edward VII settled down after being burdened with the Crown. His appetites killed him in 9 short years on the throne. He continued his unabashedly toxic, imperial ways through an unabashedly toxic and imperial age, which shall ever bear his name: the Edwardian Era.

Archives

Sperry Books: “Color x Color” • “Helikon” • “Chthoneon” • “Idyllion”

Latest Blog Posts