Chuck Sperry

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May 14, 2025 By squirt

Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris

Universal, The Art of Chuck Sperry
14 Juin – 14 Juillet • Vernissage: 14 Juin

14 June 2025 to 14 July 2025
Opening: Saturday, June 14, 2025

L’Oeil Ouvert Gallery
1 rue Lucien Sampaix
75010 Paris (metro: République)

PARIS, FRANCE: Chuck Sperry’s solo exhibition “Universal” opens Saturday, June 14 and will be on view through July 14, 2025 at L’Oeil Ouvert Gallery, Paris where Sperry will be showing new works, archive rarities, test prints and a spectacular array of new and archive limited, screen printed, wood panels. Chuck Sperry will be attending; we hope to see you there!

“The artworks featured in the “Universal” exhibition reach for a personal politics, a deeper connection to change and evolution, by connecting with the archetypes at the foundation of our humanist experiment in democracy. I have always maintained that beauty strengthens my message. My current work has much more to do with symmetry and proportion, color and balance. It’s a utopian provocation; while the present era couldn’t be more off balance, more dystopian. I want my work to provoke meditation and emotional responses to its clear colors, balance and symmetry — to give courage, light and beauty to all of us trapped in an ugly historical moment. I think of my work from the last few years as defiant in these dark times. I like to think I give people courage through it. It gives me courage to work on it.” – Chuck Sperry

Informed by art historical figures such as Gustave Moreau and William Morris, combined with poetry and Greek Mythology, Chuck Sperry has cultivated a distinct style brimming with exuberance and energy. Refining his vision through his masterful printing expertise, Sperry creates ethereal and psychedelically saturated screen prints that draw crowds of dedicated fans around the world.

Creating work for musicians such as Pearl Jam, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Patti Smith and The Black Keys in addition to his fine art screen prints on wood panel and paper, Chuck Sperry has also used his artwork for social activism and change. The artist describes his political participation – “Freedom of Speech is our most powerful weapon, and it’s a driving force in my art.”

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Filed Under: Rock Posters

April 23, 2025 By squirt

Chuck Sperry’s Alice Donut Poster

Alice Donut, Brooklyn 2025
Edition of 300
20 x 34.25
6 color on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

In celebration of Alice Donut’s first NYC gig in 15 years! This poster is officially available at the shows in Brooklyn. 

I will make a limited online release of my Alice Donut Poster and its variants via EQL launch opening on Sunday, April 27, 2025 at 9 am PST. The launch closes on Monday, April 28, 2025 at 6 pm PST. The ballot will be open for 33 hours. 

As long as you enter during this timeframe, time of entry does not impact your chances of purchase. There will be three live launches: 1 launch for each edition. You are free to register once for each launch. Multiple entries per launch will be penalized. You may only win 1 poster from each of the live launches within this 33 hour period. One per household.

Visit the launch page for the release (countdown and launch)

“Forged in the back alleys and neon-lit dive bars of New York City in the late 1980s, Alice Donut arrived on the scene with a presence that defied categorization … The band quickly established themselves as architects of an off-kilter sound; one that fused the raw aggression of punk with alternative rock, unexpected pop twist, and a healthy dose of experimental chaos a la Frank Zappa … They were central figures in New York’s underground scene and their fearless experimentation and shifting lineups challenged the norms of what a rock band could be and should be … In a city known for its ceaseless reinvention, Alice Donut remains a vivid reminder of a time when music was as unpredictable as the urban jungle it sprang from. Their legacy lives on in every band that dares to blur the lines between chaos and craft — a true blazing tribute to New York’s untamed creative spirit.” – Sydney Taylor, Loudwire

Alice Donut, Brooklyn 2025
Sparkle Foil Edition of 25
20 x 34.25
6 color on sparkle foil
Signed and Numbered

Alice Donut, Brooklyn 2025
Lava Foil Edition of 25
20 x 34.25
6 color on lava foil
Signed and Numbered

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Alice Donut, Alternative Tentacles, Babe The Blue Ox, Brooklyn, Nasalrod, The Brooklyn Monarch, Very Pleasant Neighbor, Victims Family

January 31, 2025 By squirt

Edwardian Ball 2025 Poster

Edwardian Ball 2025
22 x 28
Edition of 250
3 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

This poster is officially available at the show in SF. I will make a limited online launch of my Edwardian Ball 2025 poster through EQL opening on Monday, February 3, 2025 at 9 am PST. The launch closes on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 9 am PST.

Visit the launch page for the release (countdown and launch):

JOIN EQL RELEASE

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 has more than an edge of social critique.

“Ladies and gentlemen, politics is not the most important thing, it’s the only thing!” – Eugène Ionesco

The far-away oligarchy of the Edwardian period is being outdone by the sinister multi-centi-billionaire, hormone-jacked, space-racing, data-driven, artificially-intelligent, techno-oligarchs of the present day. The oligarchic musings of my entire series of posters for the Edwardian Ball come into focus as a prescient warning started many, many years ago.

This year’s poster emerges from my darkest imaginings of the near future: a deadly, skeletal, imperial monarch who rules by whim and decree, conquering Greenland, and establishing his dictatorship from the Gulf of America to the Arctic Circle. 

Our potentate’s power-madness is symbolized by a scepter emblazoned with the Facebook logo. In an absurd touch, our techno-oligarch is accompanied by his royal rhinoceros draped in his ermine cloak. 

The rhino is a thematic flourish first used in my 2013 Edwardian Ball poster, and is used here as a symbolic warning based on French absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco’s play “The Rhinoceros.” 

In Ionesco’s play citizens one-by-one inexplicably turn into brute, belligerent rhinoceroses. Written in 1959 the play is largely considered to be an allegory of social degradation and slow descent into fascist politics. It’s themes mirror our present-day social degradation and growing obsession with far-right ideology. 

Today’s grandiose multi-centi-billionaire oligarchs are guided toward world domination by artificial intelligence, or as Ionesco said in his play: “Being a machine is a great way to avoid thinking.”

My 2025 poster for the Edwardian Ball was foreshadowed on January 15 by outgoing President Joe Biden’s unusually dire remarks delivered during his farewell address:

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms.”

During incoming President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Ball on the evening of January 20, five days after Biden’s warning, Trump’s multi-centi-billionaire oligarchic sidekick Elon Musk thrust a pair of nazi salutes over the crowd attending his inaugural ball. 

There, you’ve been warned.

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, Edwardian Ball

November 15, 2024 By squirt

Sperry x Harman Projects x CONTEXT: Art Miami 2024

Joy, 2024
20 x 30
Edition of 30
Screen print on oak panel
Signed and numbered

Pneuma, 2024
30 x 20
Edition of 30
Screen print on oak panel
Signed and numbered

Home Show, A Chuck Sperry Retrospective, 2024
19 x 35
Artist Edition of 100
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and numbered

 

HARMAN PROJECTS • CONTEXT: Art Miami

Booth A16

Harman Projects is pleased to be returning to CONTEXT: Art Miami for Miami Art Week 2024. We will be located at booth A16 which will be familiar to those who visited us last year at the fair so if you’re in town we hope to see you there!

Featuring:
Esao Andrews | BEZT | DALeast | Mark Drew | Alison Friend | Frank Gonzales | Aaron Horkey | Sarah Joncas | Josh Keyes | Scott Listfield | Louis Michel | Chuck Sperry | Martin Whatson | Martin Wittfooth | Hama Woods

Address:
The CONTEXT Art Miami Pavillion
One Herald Plaza
NE 14th Street & Biscayne Bay
Miami, FL 33132
(Google Maps)

Dates:
Platinum VIP Preview: Tuesday December 3, 2024 | 11:00am – 1:00pm
VIP Preview: Tuesday December 3, 2024 | 1:00pm – 4:00pm

General Admission:
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 | 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Wednesday, December 4, 2024 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Thursday, December 5, 2023 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Friday, December 6, 2023 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday, December 7, 2023 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Sunday, December 8, 2023 |  11:00am – 6:00pm

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Art Basel Miami, Chuck Sperry, Context Art Fair, Harman Projects

October 30, 2024 By squirt

Release of Joy • Sperry Blotter Release on EQL

“Joy” 2024
Edition of 300
9 x 11.25
Vegetable based inks
80# unbleached cotton paper
BC Blotter Co.
Signed and Numbered

The Release of Joy • Online Release with EQL

The “Joy” blotter release for my retrospective “Home Show” was a big success at the opening. Now this blotter will be made available to my friends and supporters online through EQL!

I will make a limited online launch of my Joy blotter through EQL opening on Friday, November 1, 2024 at 9 am PST. The launch closes (the next day) on Saturday, November 2, 2024 at 9 am PST. The ballot will be open for 24 hours. As long as you enter during this timeframe, time of entry does not impact your chances of purchase.

There will be one live launch for the “Joy” blotter. You are free to register once for the launch. Multiple entries for the launch will be penalized. You may only win 1 blotter from the live launch within this 24 hour period. One per household.

Visit the launch page for the release (countdown and launch):

JOIN EQL RELEASE

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective, EQL, EQL Run Fair™, Haight Street Art Center, Home Show, Joy, Joy Blotter, Sperry x EQL

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Latest News

  • Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris
  • Sperry in Popland 2025 at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
  • Chuck Sperry’s Alice Donut Poster
  • Chuck Sperry’s “The Mystic” & “Iphigenia” Blotters • 
Online Release with EQL
  • Available Now: Chuck Sperry’s Newest Protest Art Poster

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About 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. Learn More…

Archives

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

Latest Blog Posts

  • Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris
  • Sperry in Popland 2025 at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
  • Chuck Sperry’s Alice Donut Poster
  • Chuck Sperry’s “The Mystic” & “Iphigenia” Blotters • 
Online Release with EQL
  • Available Now: Chuck Sperry’s Newest Protest Art Poster

Band, Venue, Year…

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