Chuck Sperry

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  • Books: Color x Color • Helikon • Chthoneon • Idyllion

October 7, 2021 By squirt

Chuck Sperry x Spoke Art at NYCC • “Pythia” Art Print Release

Pythia, 2021
30 x 22.5
Edition of 250
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Variants: Sparkle Foil, Lava Foil, Satin Black, Gold and Silver

“Pythia” will be available at New York Comic Con at Spoke Art booth 1572 starting Thursday when doors open.
Spoke Art will make a very limited online release on the following Thursday, October 14, 2021. 

I am pleased to announce that I will be releasing my newest art print, “Pythia”, at Spoke Art’s live appearance at New York Comic Con this coming weekend. 

The New York Comic Convention has been a great forum to release new muses. I released “Clio” (2019), “Truth” & “Beauty” (2018), “Demeter” (2017), “Dryad” (2016), and “Justice” (2014) at NYCC through all through Spoke Art – all signature, highly desirable prints. My wood panel art print of “Justice” was acquired by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in 2017. My large-scale, hand-woven tapestry of “Demeter” was acquired by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in 2018. I love this electrical arc between popular art and fine art institution.

Read HERE to find out about Spoke Art’s amazing release schedule – exciting updates and announcements – for this year’s NYCC!

Find out more • Buy Chuck Sperry’s art books here • 1000+ pages of beautiful art and inspiration.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, Color X Color, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Muses, New York Comic Convention, Spoke Art

September 16, 2021 By squirt

“Empathy” Art Print Wins Award

My “Empathy” Art Print from 2020 has been voted Poster of the Week by Expressobeans members. Thanks to all my supporters, I super appreciate it! Many thanks to Expressobeans.com. 

“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 meditations 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 don’t want to fragment my work . . .  not just yet . . . or abstract or dissolve; 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.” – Juxtapoz Magazine, March 29, 2018

I am making a renewed release of all my books – which are on sale and available again through my site. (also available on Amazon / or by ordering through your local independent bookstore in the US and throughout the world) – Click the link below to purchase through my site:

Chuck Sperry’s books are available HERE

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive, Empathy, Expressobeans, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Muses, Poster of the Week

August 8, 2020 By squirt

Sperry Books: “Color x Color”, “Helikon”, “Chthoneon” & “Idyllion”

“Idyllion, The Art of Chuck Sperry” continues the poetic journey started by Chuck’s previous companion books “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry” and “Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry”. 

“Idyllion” collects 29 gorgeously photographed new Sperry screen printed art works paired with the prose or poem — from Hesiod to Maynard James Keenan — that inspired each. 

The reader is also offered insight into Chuck’s latest political poster in support of the Equal Rights Amendment campaign with an extensive interview of Sperry by graphic design legend Steven Heller. The interview — accompanied by beautiful photographs by Shaun Roberts — follows the artist at work from the production process to launching the poster.

“Idyllion” is overflowing with evocative and inspiring new work from one of America’s most popular, outspoken and important contemporary artists.

More Details about Book

Idyllion • Silver Edition

$55 Including Shipping • US ORDERS ONLY




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“Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” delves boldly into Sperry’s artistic imagination, inspiration and reasoning, continuing where it’s companion book “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry” left off. “Chthoneon” collects 22 gorgeously photographed new Sperry screen printed art works paired with the prose or poem — from Aristophanes to Margaret Atwood — that inspired each.

More Details about Book

Chthoneon • Silver Edition

$55 Including Shipping • US ORDERS ONLY




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Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry

“Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry” gathers together Sperry’s masterfully screen printed wood panel series of contemporary-classical muses: work inspired by the spirit of the modern rock poster, graffiti, and the utopian ethos of 1960’s psychedelia.

More Details about Book

Helikon • Silver Edition

$55 Including Shipping • US ORDERS ONLY




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“Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive” illustrates the 40 year career arc of renowned rock poster artist and master screen printer, Chuck Sperry. The 750+ page tome features over 800 color reproductions of Sperry’s work, from his early years creating posters for Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore Auditorium, to his eye-arresting work for The Who, Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, and the Black Keys.

More Details about Book

“Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive” • Third Printing

$120 Including Shipping • US ORDERS ONLY




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Filed Under: News Tagged With: Chthoneon, Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, Color X Color, Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive, Helikon, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Idyllion, Idyllion The Art of Chuck Sperry

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

March 14, 2019 By squirt

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019
30.5 x 21.5
Artist Edition of 100
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out-Thank You!

________________

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019
30.5 x 21.5
Gold Edition of 12
7 colors on gold metallic paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out-Thank You!

________________

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019
30.5 x 21.5
Satin Black Edition of 13
7 colors on satin black paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out-Thank You!

________________

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019
30.5 x 21.5
Sparkle Foil Edition of 22
7 colors on holographic sparkle foil paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out-Thank You!

________________

Widespread Panic, Washington DC 2019
30.5 x 21.5
Lava Foil Edition of 24
7 colors on holographic lava foil paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out-Thank You!

________________

Widespread Panic starts their Spring Tour in Washington DC, three days of amazing music and friends together in The Capitol.

I chose to personify the nation’s capitol as Lady Liberty, hair waving like a flag of freedom, dripping with beautiful, transient cherry blossoms. Let’s call her Lady Liberty because America should always remain an ongoing experiment open to individual interpretation. Let your freak flag fly!

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My new poster will be available at the concerts in DC officially through Widespread Panic. I’ll be making a very limited online release of Artist Edition posters on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at a random time. 

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Find out more about Chuck Sperry’s art – check out his art books here!

I want to welcome a lot of newcomers to my site! I’ll quickly explain how my releases on my website are conducted. The Widespread Panic posters will be available, right here, in this post on Tuesday, March 19, 2019 at a random time. A paypal “Buy Now” button will appear under the poster (above) at a random time, and I will announce the price of the poster at the same time. (There may be additional offers or surprises – perhaps variants – revealed at that random time.) Good luck to everyone, and as always, I am very appreciative of your support!

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Lady Liberty, Muses, Widespread Panic

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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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