Chuck Sperry

I’m very happy to announce, an Open House at Hangar 18 Studio Gallery on Friday, March 28, 2014 from noon to 6 pm. So “Don’t Panic!”

I would love to welcome the Widespread Panic family to Oakland, California and give everyone a warm welcome to the my studio. This is a great opportunity to visit the print studio that gave birth to some of your favorite posters for your favorite band. I’ll be making a Widespread Panic art show, with some special prints and rarities available. There will be some special announcements in the coming weeks!

(I won’t be able to respond with news to anyone, individually, for the moment, in regard to what will be offered or shown, let’s just sit back, and enjoy the surprises on Friday, March 28!)

Hangar 18 Studio Gallery is also proud to introduce guest printmakers, John Hancock and Carlos Hernandez, who will be making a special printmaking demonstration on Friday, March 28, 2014 from noon to 5pm.

 “Burroughs Screen Print Mash-Up”

John Hancock & Carlos Hernandez live screen print demonstration

at Hangar 18 Studio Gallery

1428 34th Street, Oakland, CA

Event: Friday, March 28, 2014 • noon to 6 pm

John Hancock of The Amazing Hancock Brothers and Carlos Hernandez will showcase their “dirty” printmaking with their Burroughs Screen Print Mash-Up, presented by Speedball Art Products.  The process is collaborative, frenetic, fast and democratic.  A set number of images are chosen, put into screens and are printed in a seemingly random manner.  The prints created will celebrate the life of postmodernist author and artist William S. Burroughs, who was born 100 years ago this year. Considered to be one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th century, Burroughs has affected a wide range of popular culture. He was a primary figure of the Beat Generation, which began in New York and eventually relocated to San Francisco, when the central members (minus Burroughs) ended up here together.

John Hancock and Carlos Hernandez are joining forces to celebrate the Southern Graphics Council International printmaking conference which will be convening at San Francisco’s Hyatt Regency, Embarcadero, with a multitude of additional participating organizations, from March 26 to March 30, 2014.

The Southern Graphics Council International (SGCI), the largest print organization in North America, is holding it’s annual conference in The Bay Area. SGCI annual conference is the biggest annual gathering focused on the field of printmaking. Artists from all 50 states, as well as international artists, attend the conference. The 42nd annual conference will be held in the San Francisco Bay Area, the first West Coast conference in the organization’s history. Bridges, this year’s conference theme, will investigate the intersections between traditional and emerging technologies, between art, communication and activism.

Speedball Art Products, who produce a complete line of block printing and screen printing supplies, as well as other fine art supplies, is sponsoring the Screen Print Mash-Up at Hangar 18.  Their screen printing products will be used exclusively during the Burroughs Screen Print Mash-Up.

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The Burroughs Screen Print Mash-Up will be hosted by Chuck Sperry at Hangar 18, his silkscreen print studio located in Oakland. Sperry has honed his craft of designing and hand screen printing for over 15 years to become recognized throughout the world as one of the foremost rock poster artists and printmakers. Elevating the craft to fine art, he creates socio-political artwork beyond rock.

Infamous “low-tech” print masters, Texas-born The Amazing Hancock Brothers look to shock as much as inform. Their bold, unabashed style combines screen printing, woodcuts, and acrylic into mixed-use pieces that resemble part Circus Freak posters, part insane patterns, and all crazy, in-your-face attitude. Brothers Charles and John often throw all sense of propriety out the window, then rip down the curtains, screen clowns or skulls or grotesque portraits on them, and then throw that out the window, too. As members of Dirty Printmakers of America, they are able to use their ferocious, fearless talent to push the awareness and accessibility of printmaking to the huddled masses, democratizing art and technique.

A member of the infamous Outlaw Printmakers, Houston-based serigraphy artist Carlos Hernandez has had his work featured in the 2011 Communication Arts Typography annual, the 2011 & 2012 Communication Arts Illustration annual and was also recently published in the 2012 book Mexican Graphics by Korero Books-UK.  He has designed and printed gig posters for such artists as The Kills, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Santana, and more. Most recently, he was selected as the official poster artist to design the commemorative poster for the 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Carlos is a founding partner of Burning Bones Press, a full-service printmaking studio located in the Houston Heights, and serves as an instructor of Screen Printing at Rice University, Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts.