Chuck Sperry: Archetypes, a solo exhibition by San Francisco-based artist Chuck Sperry.
Artist Talk:
Saturday, November 7th
4pm to 4:30pm
Featuring Chuck Sperry and FWMoA Curator Josef Zimmerman
Opening Night Reception:
Saturday, November 7th
5pm to 10pm
The artist will be in attendance
Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday / 11am – 6pm
Exhibition on view until Saturday, November 28th
Harman Projects SF
1275 Minnesota Street, Suite 106
San Francisco, CA 94107
“Chuck Sperry: Archetypes” comes home to San Francisco!
Harman Projects at Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco is proud to present CHUCK SPERRY: ARCHETYPES, a watershed exhibition devoted to the artist’s decades long exploration of the archetypes of Greek mythology. The exhibit serves as a visual dialogue with the ideals that helped to shape the philosophical foundations of American democracy.
With an eye to the democratizing influence of Sperry’s provocative printmaking on the art world, Sperry will be releasing new and archive wood panels, paper prints, blotters, card sets and his new 680 page art book — and making them accessible and available in San Francisco at Harman Projects — opening November 2026.
Following Chuck Sperry’s landmark retrospective at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (April 24 – August 2026), his exhibition last year at SFMOMA, and Sperry’s exhibition this year at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in New York — Sperry’s hometown will get a comprehensive gallery exhibition of dozens of Sperry’s world-renown original screen printed wood panels — and the premier release of Sperry’s new 680 page art compendium Archetypes, The Sperry Art Print Archive 2009-2026.
Here’s what’s being offered at Harman Projects in San Francisco:
Brand new panel editions of 30: Sophia, Arete, Titania, Kallirhoe.
Plus San Francisco reserve on recent panels (created 2026): Juno, Courage, Pseudea, Iphigenia, Soeurs Jumelles, Danaïde, Love.
A large selection of archive wood panels.
Paper prints: Deep dive into Archive prints and posters!
Brand new art print release.
Brand new Blotter.
Hometown Premier of Sperry’s new 680 page art book: Archetypes, The Sperry Art Print Archive 2009-2026.
2 new Sperry Collectible Art Card sets.
We’re thrilled to be making these offerings accessible and available to the public at Harman Projects at Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco — opening November 7, 2026.
• • •
Chuck Sperry, world famous rock concert poster maker for 30 years, is known for making posters for Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Grateful Dead, U2, Pearl Jam, The Beastie Boys, and The Black Keys. His personal art practice is moving him beyond master poster designer and printmaker to art world phenomenon when his art pieces started moving into the “urban art” genre. Beginning in 2009, many of Sperry’s art prints began to feature images of muses from Greek mythology, and were well received whether on auction or in galleries.
Politically engaged: his involvement in the ERA movement as an ally has helped to amplify the message of equal rights for women, creating posters for Artists 4 ERA, Vote Equality, and the Center For Common Ground (which helped Democrats expand Senate seats in 2022 & 2026), and created three posters for the Women’s March movement in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
“My art is meant to beautify, but also to inspire engagement and awaken the viewer’s sense of agency. Greek archetypes help with that, because they speak in a universal symbolic language that transcends division. Through myth, I like to inspire discussion about courage, justice, renewal, resilience — without immediately falling into partisan trenches,” says Sperry.
Today as democratic principles are being challenged, Sperry dives headlong into the controversy: “I try to show that democracy is a living process,” says Chuck Sperry. “It begins with ideals, descends into the depths of our human challenges, and rises again into the shared garden of possibility. My archetypes guide us through these realms, reminding us that democracy is not static—it is radical and transformative—a continual passage, a communal stewardship, a utopian experiment we carry forward.”
Celebrating Sperry’s counter-cultural roots, and mapping his progress print by print from the street art and concert poster worlds, ARCHETYPES is a complete exhibition of decades of the influential artist’s art print work; it follows his trajectory from master poster designer and printmaker to art world phenomenon. Sperry’s images are recognized the world over, and parallel to his achievement of mainstream recognition, his history of social engagement and mythic exploration is illuminated by the scores of technically virtuosic pieces presented in ARCHETYPES.
Sperry adds, “My posters and prints circulate through music venues, festivals, protests, and community gatherings like ritual objects—seeds sown across a cultural landscape. They carry archetypal meaning into shared spaces, encouraging viewers to see themselves as participants in this ongoing democratic experiment.”
“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
“Through the years my work has become a multi-various host of archetypes which unfolded organically through a long series of art prints. Archetypes is the synthesis of this journey: the illuminating path connecting personal and social catharsis,” says Chuck Sperry. “I believe that the gods and goddesses are attributes of the mind. What may appear on the face of things like a variety of pagan reverence is really a celebration of the human spirit.”
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