All Access: Exploring Humanism in the Art of Chuck Sperry

September 15 – December 9, 2018

The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is pleased to celebrate Chuck Sperry’s first museum solo exhibition. Sperry has been preeminent in the rock poster genre since the late 1990s and has largely defined the genre in each decade since with his distinctive style and masterful printing technique.

Sperry has drawn inspiration for this work from the classical Greco-Roman idea of the muses, and their metaphorical home on Mount Helikon — the source of inspiration for all things art and music. Naiads, nymphs and muses in their richly patterned floral settings make their way into Sperry’s work. Dripping with brightly colored flowers, decked in gold and silver textures, Sperry’s blue-silver muses sing a paean to the long tradition of humanism reactivated in the struggle for social progress, universal human rights, a more perfect democracy and the utopian ideals of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco where Sperry has made his home since 1989.

Symbolism, Secession, ukiyo-e, and psychedelia blend in Sperry’s flattened, post-modern figurative art: all potent ingredients Sperry strives self-consciously to re-evaluate for the 21st Century.

The exhibit will feature 2 large scale tapestries designed by Sperry, 25 screen prints on oak panel, original ink drawings, and ephemeral color progressives which illuminate Sperry’s unique printing process.

There will be several new wood panel editions, and two new paper editions with variant editions available to acquire.

I will be releasing “Cthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” the 136 page follow up of my art book “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry”. 

This exhibition is organized by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and its Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

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Exhibition Opening Party: September 14, 6-9pm

Celebrate opening weekend of this exhibit and Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era with live music, cash bar, appetizers, and face time with the one and only Chuck Sperry!

Printmaking Workshop 1 with Chuck Sperry: September 15, 1:30pm • SOLD OUT

Learn from the singular figure of psychedelic poster printmaking Chuck Sperry with a hand-on workshop. Pre-registration with fee of $30 is required. Fee includes all supplies and your take-home creation.

Printmaking Workshop 2 with Chuck Sperry: September 15, 3:30pm • SOLD OUT

Learn from the singular figure of psychedelic poster printmaking Chuck Sperry with a hand-on workshop. Pre-registration with fee of $30 is required. Fee includes all supplies and your take-home creation.

Curator’s Tour: November 1, 12:15-1pm
Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman will lead you on an engaging tour of this exhibit. From specialized and personal points of view, curators offer unique perspectives on all FWMoA exhibits. Tours are free with gallery admission.