Chuck Sperry

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March 19, 2019 By squirt

Fort Wayne Museum of Art Acquires Sperry Tapestry “Demeter” for Permanent Collection

Thank you Fort Wayne Museum of Art for acquiring my large-scale tapestry Demeter for the permanent collection of the museum. I’m thrilled that Demeter will hold a place in the museum’s collection and inspire future generations.

 

Demeter, 2018 
Chuck Sperry 
82.7 x 126 inches (210 cm x 320 cm) 
Handwoven wool tapestry 

Production 
Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos 

Master Dyer 
Rafael Morquecho 

Weavers 
Antonio Flores
Pedro Ibarra Cazares (aka Solin) 
Abraham Flores
Pedro Ibarra Hernandez 

Semele Tapestry by Chuck Sperry

Excerpts from “Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” — Buy Chthoneon Here

I. The Tapestries

I was naturally drawn to realize my work in tapestry because the medium’s many resonances to my production methods, subject matter and themes. It’s archival permanence also appealed to my aim to seek a balance with the ephemerality of my work on paper. 

Historically tapestries have dealt with mythological themes, some of the earliest tapestries being whimsical depictions of Ovid’s Metamorphosis for the titillation of noble classes. I felt it would be interesting to re-envision these same themes in tapestry, reclaiming the divine feminine in a self-empowering way, for a classless milieu that underscores equality and democratic principles. In the 19th Century, William Morris, who championed “Art For All”—an appeal to the “makers” and their democratization of the arts —re-invigorated the ancient art of tapestry, lending me yet another reason to seek out this medium to express my work. 

Having encountered the striking beauty of Damián Ortega’s tapestry “Microchip IV” at the Mexican gallery Kurimanzutto at Art Basel in December 2017, I reached out to this tapestry’s producer Jaime Ashida, director of Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos, in early January of 2018 to pursue the realization of two triptychs: Graces and Thesmophoria. 

I was attracted by Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos’ use of metallics and the subtle shadings of color apparent in the Ortega tapestry. I intuited that this workshop would take great care to realize my subtle textures, transparencies and uses of metallic patterns. As our discourse unfolded I was struck by the depth of understanding and deep commitment that developed between us in the production of these absolutely masterful tapestries: there is a magic that was stirred from the depths of human compassion and belief. 

What has been created in the first year of our joyful collaboration is two-thirds of Graces (Thalia and Semele) and one-third of Thesmophoria (Demeter). Working with the master dyers, weavers, and stitchers of the Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos directed by Jaime Ashida has been a wonderful dream come true.

— Chuck Sperry 

II. The Process of Making… 

In June of 2018, I visited Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos in Guadalajara, Mexico with photographer Shaun Roberts. I wanted to meet Jaime and the Taller team to celebrate the completion of our work together for my museum solo “All Access” at Fort Wayne Museum of Art. I wanted to see these beautiful tapestries in person (each in various stages of finish), meet the makers, raise a glass, break bread, and bring Shaun to document the colors and textures of Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos in a series of photographs. What follows is Shaun Roberts’ photographic exposé of the mastery and care in the many stages of the intricate, time-consuming, age-old tapestry making process.

— Chuck Sperry 

III. Voices of The Workshop: A Triptych

Voice 1: “Chuck managed to decipher the capacity of representation and the possibilities of the particular technique of this tapestry workshop. He observed the textures and colors of the tapestries. The colors, in textiles of the kind, are tactile: it is wool and metallic thread, each color consists of three strands of different shades. I imagine that Chuck must have made an association with the textures achieved in screen printing when it is also combined with acrylic paint and mineral pigments, for example. He talked about the depth of colors, about transparencies, that there is no absolute solid colors, and that there is always a kind of unexpected alchemy taking place. The use of the three different strands for each tone, plus the metallic strands, achieved a richer palette that was evident in the textile translated triptych.

“In collaborative relationships with artists, I like to find those who go as far as possible in the use of the technique and its historical dimension.”

Voice 2: “When I first saw the design of what I would have to weave, I worried a little because I had never done something like that before. I noticed that the metallic finishing was working well and I got excited: it looked amazing! The feeling of tightness in the weaving was palpable, when adding the metal to the mixture of colored wool threads, it hardens and fits naturally in the fabric, that is to say: it helps. The experiment turned out very well and I am proud to have passed the test.”

Voice 3: “The women on the triptych look powerful and full of life, Goddess Creators. They reminded me of the representation of an Amazonian female deity: plenty of bright colors and surrounded by nature under her command to pursue the sake of her people and common causes. We chatted with Chuck about the mythic inversion of stories about female deities and how these goddesses were stripped of many of their attributes in the classic accounts of fundamental myths. Chuck seeks to tell those stories differently, depicting divine and powerful women within his oeuvre. When we said goodbye, the last thing he said was: keep fighting the power.”

— Taller Mexicano de Gobelinos

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American artist Chuck Sperry is known for his ethereal and psychedelically saturated screen prints that draw crowds of dedicated fans around the world. He draws inspiration from graffiti, pop art, Symbolism, Art Nouveau and ukiyo-e.

Moving past his early work devoted to subverting the memes of advertising, trash-culture, and comics — he currently imagines a verdant garden of new work tended by his signature shimmering muses, calling this work a “utopian provocation.”

He has been exhibited throughout The United States and internationally for 25 years, including solo shows in New York, London, Paris, Milan, Rome, Athens, Berlin, Zurich, Geneva, Buenos Aires, Miami, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

His work has been featured via the Arte Channel, New York Times, Le Parisien, The Guardian (UK), Corriere della Sera, La Repubblica, The Huffington Post, RollingStone, Spin, Architectural Digest, and many more.

He currently lives in San Francisco, California.

Filed Under: Art Prints Tagged With: All Access, All Access Exploring Humanism in the Art of Chuck Sperry, Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Muses, Semele, The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Widespread Panic

January 31, 2019 By squirt

Chuck Sperry x Pangea Seed: “The Diver” Art Print

Chuck-Sperry-Pangea-Seed

The Diver 2019
16 x 35
Edition of 125
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered
_______________
Chuck-Sperry-Pangea-Seed
The Diver 2019
16 x 35
Silver Edition of 25
7 colors on silver metallic paper
Signed and Numbered
_______________
Chuck-Sperry-Pangea-Seed
The Diver 2019
16 x 35
Gold Edition of 25
7 colors on gold metallic paper
Signed and Numbered
_______________
PangeaSeed Foundation and artist Chuck Sperry are pleased to announce – a fine art print to help save our seas. This limited edition will be released Thursday, February 7, 2019 at 12pm PST via shop.PangeaSeed.org – limit one print per household.
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My print for PangeaSeed Foundation, “The Diver”, is a celebration of the beauty of the ocean environment and our inter-connected place in it.We are oxygen breathing animals, and we live on land. “The Diver” is leaving her natural habitat to enter a watery world, where she can not survive long for lack of air; there she is surrounded by the beauty and danger of the seas. She is also surrounded by the essence of her life on land.

“The Diver” plunges into the beautiful ocean surrounded by myriad air bubbles. Our ocean environment plays a crucial role in the generation of the majority of Earth’s life-sustaining air. We could not live on land and breathe fresh air without the world’s oceans. 70% of Earth’s oxygen comes from marine plants in our ocean environments. Heat driven loss of ocean oxygen is one of the leading threats to the delicate world biome posed by Climate Change.

It’s clearly time to act. Please be mindful and give your care to the environment. It’s time to do what you can to become a good steward of the environment. I am always happy to contribute my time and energy to PangeaSeed Foundation! Their efforts in helping to save the oceans, thru art and activism, deserve our support and good energies!

I noted in the credit line of my poster: “After Alfred Roller.” The figure of the diver in my print is influenced by a figure in the work of Vienna Secessionist artist Alfred Roller, the brilliant early 20th Century graphic stylist and inventor of the free, flowing typographical fonts that inspired artist Wes Wilson to create psychedelic lettering in the 1960’s.

Read more about the role oceans play in creating the air we breathe:
When a Killer Climate Catastrophe Struck the World’s Oceans

And visit PangeaSeed.org to learn how you can help save our oceans.
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Filed Under: Art Prints Tagged With: Alfred Roller, Chuck Sperry, Climate Change, Pangea Seed, Vienna Secession, Wes Wilson

January 25, 2019 By squirt

Edwardian Ball 2019 Poster

Edwardian Ball 2019
19 x 35
Edition of 125
3 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out – Thank You!

________________

This poster is officially available at the show in SF and LA. I will be making a very limited online release of this poster on Sunday, January 27, 2019 at a random time.

________________

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.” 

2019 was the year we entered “The Post-Truth World.” I’m not buying the ticket to that ride, really-but-really, but it made me think of the eminently Edwardian and irrational — Rasputin — spiritualist, con-man and emotional vampire to the Czar Romanov family. 

Spiritualists were fashionable to the ultra-wealthy oligarchs of the period. Rasputin boasted the mirror-image of a perfect pedigree: a peasant and holy man. His ferrel lack of charm and grace was thrilling to the elite circles he traversed in imperial Russia. Rasputin’s folksy and disarming gnosticism was — I’ll use a word we hear a lot today — “unprecedented.”

Clever and conniving, Rasputin snaked away the patronage of Czarina Alexandra Romanov, empress of Russia, with its ability to bestow wealth and prestige. By degrees, he would hold a nation’s leader mesmerized, and participate in bringing about the self-destruction of Russia’s imperial order. 

Soon the fabulously wealthy dynastic Romanov family would abdicate their empire, be brought down by the Bolsheviks, become prisoners of the revolution, and be bound for bleak incarceration and execution. I guess the moral is: Don’t be a sucker to a con-man.

Filed Under: Art Prints, Events Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, Edwardian Ball

December 11, 2018 By squirt

“The Oracle” & “The Seer” Blotter Art Release & Book Signing, Chuck Sperry at Shakedown Gallery, Haight Street

 

Shakedown Gallery is hosting “Drop The Mics: A Blotter Art Show”.

Join us Saturday, December 15, 2018 for the exclusive San Francisco release of two new Chuck Sperry blotter art pieces – “The Oracle” & “The Seer.” Chuck Sperry will be there in person to sign his books, “Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” & “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry.”

“Drop The Mics: A Blotter Art Show”
Exhibition and pop-up gallery

Shakedown Gallery
411 Haight Street 
San Francisco, California

Exhibition: December 1, 2018 to January 1, 2019

Chuck Sperry blotter release and book signing: 
Saturday, December 15 – 3pm to 6 pm.
Random lottery numbers will be handed out at 2:30 pm, half an hour before the show.

The Oracle
6 x 9
Edition of 150
Perforated blotter sheet
Signed and Numbered

The Seer
6 x 9
Edition of 150
Perforated blotter sheet
Signed and Numbered

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Drop the Mics features an amazing collection of art by some of your favorite psychedelic and visionary artists. The show will feature many signed limited blotter art editions, plus rare archival prints including pieces from Mark McCloud’s notorious Institute of Illegal Images.

New and Pre-Released limited edition artwork will be available from:

Alex Grey, Stanley Mouse, Chuck Sperry
Mark Henson, Emek, Jonathan Singer
David Cooley, Richard Biffle, Sommer Biffle
Mark McCloud, Banjo, Jeff Wood
Mike DuBois, Jonathan Solter, Randal Roberts
Tripp, Sarah Farah, Mikio, William Giese
Lizzy Layne, Bigfoot, Jake Kobrin, Zoltron

Stay tuned to Shakedown Gallery for updates on additional events happening during the month.

Filed Under: Art Prints Tagged With: Alex Grey, Banjo, Bigfoot, Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, David Cooley, Drop The Mics, EMEK, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Jake Kobrin, Jeff Wood, Jonathan Singer, Jonathan Solter, Lizzy Layne, Mark Henson, Mark McCloud, Mike DuBois, Mikio, Randal Roberts, Richard Biffle, Sarah Farah, Shakedown Gallery, Sommer Biffle, Stanley Mouse, The Oracle, The Seer, Tripp, William Giese, Zoltron

November 14, 2018 By squirt

Chuck Sperry x Spoke Art at Designer Con 2018

The Oracle
21 x 31.5
Edition of 150
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Variant editions of Gold, Silver, Black, Holo Sparkle Foil, Holo Lava Foil

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Spoke Art is heading South to Anaheim this week for DesignerCon 2018! It’s our first time at D-Con and we wanted to do it right, so we are bringing all new exclusives, breaking open the archives and we’ll have a fantastic array of art you won’t want to miss!!

Here’s a first look at our DesignerCon 2018 exclusive from artist Chuck Sperry. Join us at booth 2613 all weekend to get yours before they’re gone.

Sperry poster release will be Saturday, November 17th at Noon at DesignerCon at Spoke Art booth 2613!

Filed Under: Art Prints, Events Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, DesignerCon, Spoke Art, The Oracle

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Latest News

  • Sperry’s Widespread Panic “Diana” Poster Wins Poster of the Year 2020
  • Color x Color Second Printing Book Release in USA & EU
  • “Harmonia” Art Print Release
  • Sperry Solo “The World To Come” at Next Door Gallery Geneva
  • Sperry Solo “The World To Come” at l’Oeil Ouvert Gallery Paris

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About Chuck Sperry

squirtChuck 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. Learn More…

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

Latest Blog Posts

  • Sperry’s Widespread Panic “Diana” Poster Wins Poster of the Year 2020
  • Color x Color Second Printing Book Release in USA & EU
  • “Harmonia” Art Print Release
  • Sperry Solo “The World To Come” at Next Door Gallery Geneva
  • Sperry Solo “The World To Come” at l’Oeil Ouvert Gallery Paris

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