Chuck Sperry

Chuck Sperry

Chuck Sperry lives in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he’s made his particular style of rock poster designs for over 20 years. He operates Hangar 18, a silkscreen print studio, located in Oakland.

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High Volume: Rock Art From The Chuck Sperry Archive and Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series

An auburn-haired songstress holds a fawn.  Shocking magenta hair falls to the shoulders of a blue nude strapped with artillery.  A 1950s-model cop car rests peacefully at the bottom of the sea, washed in blues and purples revealing a silent white angel.  Each outstanding print on display represents a prominent rock band.  Each was created by Chuck Sperry.

In early 2011, Chuck Sperry, San Francisco artist and co-owner of Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company, made an unprecedented donation to the Library’s Art, Music and Recreation Department of over one-hundred limited edition, hand-printed rock art posters.  Officially entitled, The Chuck Sperry Archive, this collection comprehensively documents the Goldenvoice Music Series (at the Regency and Warfield Theaters) from 2008 to present, as well as selected Firehouse productivity related to the cultural-life of San Francisco.

This collection is exciting in both use of color and variety of content. Each silkscreen print is comprised of up to sixteen colors, applied as individual layers. The pieces reference styles ranging from Japanese nishiki-e, Austrian Expressionism, 1960s psychedelia, to the provocative punk poster tradition of Sperry’s youth.  Musicians such as Neko Case, Danzig, Bad Religion, Nick Cave, Soundgarden and The Black Keys are represented, as are a talented group of Bay Area graphic artists (Ron Donovan, Alex Fischer, Gregg Gordon, Dave Hunter, Alan Hynes, Scott Johnson, Dennis Loren, Chris Shaw, Frank Zio, and Zoltron) who contributed to the Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster series under the art direction of Chuck Sperry.

High Volume will be on display on the Fourth Floor from Oct. 7th, 2011 – January 6th, 2012.  An opening reception will be held in the Latino/Hispanic Room on Thursday, Oct. 20th beginning at 6 p.m.

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LA vs. WAR, September 9, 10, 11, 2011

As a follow up to the original LA Vs. WAR show held in April 2008, LA Vs. War returns as a massive three-day experiential art exhibition and cultural event presenting some of today’s most prolific, pro-peace/anti-war and political artists in multi-media. LA Vs. WAR II will mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks where artists from LA and beyond will examine the questions: After 10 years of the Global War on Terror, where do we now stand as a nation? Is the world a safer place? Where does the Peace movement go from here?

Large selection of fine art, limited-edition prints and pro-peace posters on view, chronicling the creative responses to the current military conflicts in the Middle East/North Africa/Central Asia, The Global War on Terror, the Drug Wars and other wars on marginalized peoples.

The growing roster of artists includes: Abcnt, Adam Smith, Amitis Motevalli, Ando Pndlian, Army of One, Art Hazelwood, Azul 213, Brianna Lengel Bail, Byron Jose, Chaz Bojorquez, Chuck Sperry, Contra One, Cryptik, Dog Byte, Doug Minkler, Eddie Colla, Elizabeth Wood, Elle Burchill, Enik One, Eriberto Oriol, Eyeone, Favianna Rodriguez, Free Humanity, Garrison Buxton, Geraldine Lozano, Glen Brooks, Graphonic, Guillermo Bert, Gustavo Alberto Garcia Vaca, James Bentley, Jesus Barraza, John Carlos De Luna, John Carr, John Fekner, Jon Paul Bail, Khadija Anderson, Kristy Lovich, Kyle Goen, Lalo Alcaraz, Leba, lilstickyrice, Lucky Bunny, Lydia Emily, Man One, Manuela Viera- Gallo, Mark of the Beast, Manny Torres, Max Neutra, Mear One, Melanie Cervantes, Michael Datcher, Nancy Popp, Not My Government, Nuclear Winter, Oremeh Bagheri, Oscar Magallanes, Paul Barron, Poli Marichal, Raquel Gutierrez, Raymundo Hernández-López, Rebecca Conroy, Ricardo Duffy, Robbie Conal, Ron Donovan, Septerhed, Shark Toof, Shepard Fairey, Slanguage Collective, Street Phantom, Two Rabbits, Vivian Wong, Vyal One, Werc, William Acedo, Winston Smith, Yem, Yuri Shimojo

The Vortex

2341 E. Olympic Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90021

Entry: $5.00 Suggested Donation

All ages

Friday, September 9th, 2011 – Sunday, September 11th, 2011 – 12:00 PM – 12:00 AM

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Live art demonstrations and workshops to engage the audience in creative activities ranging from painting, t-shirt printing, stenciling, performance art and altar-making

Teach-ins with grassroots activist-partners from Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Code Pink, Youth Justice Coalition, Antiwar.com, Center for the Study of Political Graphics, and Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB) in effort to inform and energize attendees in transforming their own lives and communities

Peace Photo Project will be taking portraits of attendees as activists for Peace, LA Vs. WAR video art program and more

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Curated By: John Carr of Yo! Peace, the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, Political Gridlock and Ad Hoc Art 

Produced By: Estée Ochoa

Participating DJs curated by ArtDontSleep and Dublab.com: Aaron Byrd, Adrian Younge, Al Jackson, Alfred Hawkins, Alter, Andrew Meza, Anthony Valadez, B+, Carlos Nino, Coleman, Destroyer, DJ Moni, DJ Shiva, Elephant & Castle, Expo, Frosty, GLK, Hawthorne Headhunters, Haycock, House Shoes, Jun, Kristi Lomax, Lady Sha, Lee Bannon, Marc deClive Lowe, Matthew David, Mike Fisher, Monalisa, Mr. NumberOnederful, Plann B., Rani D., Rhettmatic, Seano, Skott K & special guests.

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Ben Harper at The Warfield Poster Release

Ben loved the poster! He’s a way generous dude, gave me a lot of time, a very warm meeting at The Warfield. Artist Alex Fischer took this photo:

At one point I mentioned that I do a lot of art shows with Winston Smith who did Mr. Harper’s Relentless7 record cover, and Ben whips out his cell phone and said, “Oh yeah, man, I should text Winston, thanks for reminding me!” Very thoughtful. The show was outstanding! Here’s a snip where Ben Harper is singing it, live, no microphone (vid is mismarked 2010):


Ben Harper, Jenny O. at The Warfield, August 25, 2011

Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series No. 140

26 x 20

Edition of 275

3 colors (with very heavy silver metallic) on black paper

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT – Thank You!

 

 

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Public Enemy at The Regency by Chris Shaw

It was a sincere pleasure to work with Chris Shaw on this poster designed for Public Enemy at The Regency – and hella fun to go and see the show together – WORD! Here’s Chris:

“I was thrilled when Chuck Sperry asked me if I wanted to do a Pub­lic Enemy poster for his Gold­en­voice series, I’m a huge Pub­lic Enemy fan from way back when. Doing a poster for a band you love isn’t always as great as it sounds, some­times you can get hung up on try­ing to get a per­fect image and idea and over­work the art. Try­ing not to over-think things, I decided to go with an old-school polit­i­cal poster, the kind of thing I was mak­ing in the 80’s when I lis­tened to P.E. con­stantly. I’ve made a ton of art over the years lis­ten­ing to that band, and felt like going back to my roots.

Some­how I think I’ve wanted to make this poster for a long time. The last time I made a Pub­lic Enemy poster it was for the Fill­more, I don’t think a riot cop with a bloody baton would have passed pre-screening over there. In par­tic­u­lar, I decided to make this poster a BART cop. BART is a Bay Area tran­sit agency who’s police force has been involved in some very ques­tion­able shoot­ings, have been han­dling them­selves pretty badly, they’ve been in the news a lot. Know­ing the band, the image seemed fit­ting, and timely.

The image is a col­lage of pieces from dif­fer­ent riot cop pho­tos, put together to make an espe­cially sin­is­ter fig­ure. I altered a lot of the small details along the way then sep­a­rated the art into 3 col­ors, stan­dard “pol­i­tics” black & red, plus a bright sil­ver… the sil­ver gives it that rock poster feel. For the vari­ants, we printed a pure cyan instead of the black plate, and used some dif­fer­ent stock. A big thanks Chuck for being the mas­ter of his press, this was an espe­cially clean run of posters.”

Chris will have these posters and vari­ant edi­tions drop­ping at a ran­dom time on his web­site this Fri­day, August 26, 2011. Full poster details, loads of photos and documentation, at chrisshawstudio.com

 

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Ben Harper at The Warfield

Ben Harper is one of my all time favorite artists. I’m very proud to have been given the chance to design this poster for him for his appearance at The Warfield in San Francisco on Thursday, August 25, 2011. I went for a rocking 1968 Cougar – which always looked like a spaceship to me as a child – piloted by Ben. Looking forward to a great journey through the depths of Ben Harper’s amazing multifaceted universe tonight!

Ben Harper, Jenny O. at The Warfield, August 25, 2011

Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series No. 140

26 x 20

Edition of 275

3 colors (with very heavy silver metallic) on black paper

Signed and Numbered

These posters will be available at The Warfield tonight – Thursday, August 25, 2011 –  officially through Ben Harper.

below a digital jpeg of the same poster design (without color reflections)

 

Archives

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

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