Chuck Sperry

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Thank You for Sharing an Incredible 2024 • Year In Review

Photo: Shaun Roberts

HAPPY NEW YEAR! I would like to give all my friends and supporters a heartfelt thank you for sharing an incredible 2024, full of amazing events and watershed achievements! 

2024 bore witness to San Francisco’s warm welcome of my work as I received a lifetime membership to the de Young and Legion of Honor Museums in appreciation for works which rest in their permanent collection. Additionally, the de Young and Legion of Honor Museum Stores now carry “Color x Color” – which is available at the link below. 

SIGNED Color x Color at Museum Stores

Artist Chuck Sperry at the Art of Noise exhibition at SFMOMA. May 2024. Photo: Shaun Roberts.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art brought my work into their permanent collection and showed these pieces in “The Art of Noise” exhibition through spring and summer. It’s thrilling to receive this institutional acknowledgement.

Opening reception. “Home Show” a Chuck Sperry retrospective at The Haight Street Art Center, San Francisco. On view from October 17th through November 24, 2024. Photo: Shaun Roberts.

Meanwhile, in my neighbourhood of the Haight-Ashbury I received three shows across the year: “My Minds Eye” at Psychedelic SF Art Gallery, “Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective” at the Haight Street Art Center, and The Rock Poster Society, Festival of Rock Posters which I never miss at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. All three shows were hearty reminders of my love of the city and a celebration of the living soul of San Francisco.

Packed house at Harman Projects for Chuck Sperry’s April opening of “Only Human” in New York City.

Feeling buoyed by hometown acceptance, Harman Projects launched my exhaustive solo show “Only Human” in art capital New York City, and followed with Art On Paper NYC. It was amazing to see everyone in New York City share in such an amazing celebration!

Europe called again with “Popland 4” at KochxBos Gallery, curated by amazing French artist Ciou in Amsterdam. “Only Human” solo travelled to L’Oeil Ouvert Gallery in Paris, where Beaux Arts Magazine dubbed my show one of the top five most captivating shows in the art capital of Europe. Both shows made waves on both sides of the Atlantic.

I finished the year with a solo at L’Oeil Ouvert, Paris – “Future In The Balance” which is on view until January 31 with work available through the gallery at the link below. I’m happy to report that my solo received major attention, listing on The City of Paris’ official event website, Sortir a Paris among other notices, and even took to the airwaves on OUI FM. See the link below for my available works.

AVAILABLE WORKS at L’Oeil Ouvert, Paris

I teamed up with Vote Equality, Spoke Art and The Roxie Theater to produce a benefit screening of RATIFIED, a film documenting the struggle for ERA. My poster was made the official movie poster while this spirited and important film moves into distribution and streaming next year.

I’m thrilled my work showed with Harman Projects at CONTEXT Art Miami during Art Basel, Miami Art Week – and in appreciation of San Francisco love, a very limited Artist Edition of 100 “Home Show” posters is available now by joining Harman Projects EQL launch below.

HOME SHOW EQL LAUNCH

Also there are a very limited number of my iconic “Joy” and “Pneuma” wood panels which were shown in Miami and are available through Harman Project’s CONTEXT Art Fair exhibition viewing room – see link below.

AVAILABLE WORKS HARMAN PROJECTS AT CONTEXT

I am so very grateful for an outstanding year and the support of the museum teams, gallery teams, volunteers, friends who showed up to help carry the day, and friends and supporters who came to share and revelled in the joy and love of creative energy. I’m heartened by our human family, and encouraged by your emotion, soul, light and laughter. Here’s to 2025! Please take care of each other and assert your human spirit!

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Sperry in Popland 4 to Open in Amsterdam

POPLAND IV
GRAND OPENING
SATURDAY MAY 25th • 17:00 to 20:00

I’m very pleased to announce that I will be appearing in Amsterdam on Saturday, May 25 for the opening of Popland 4, a spectacular group show curated by Ciou at KochxBos Gallery.

Popland is a remarkable group exhibition featuring new, emerging, and established talent from around the world, curated by artist Ciou.

There are several artists present at the opening. Meet Briana Hertzog, Chuck Sperry, Jana Brike, Malojo, Mono, Peca and curator Ciou!

Ciou: “I am also one of the artists, and as a curator, I find it fascinating to see how the same influences manifest in different cultures. For example, we can observe that artists within Pop Surrealism are inspired by anime, pop culture, and folk art.

It is interesting to see how artists from Asia interpret American influences, and how artists from Europe approach art from Japan. It is a continuous cycle of inspiration, a perfect circle.”

AHOY Angela Ho , Malojo , Briana Hertzog , Alexandra Lukaschewitz, Yu Maeda, Travis Louie, Mono Cieza, Peca, Pamela Tait, Erlend Tait , Travis Lampe, El Gato Chimey, Mizna Wada, Creature Creature : Chanel Tang and Ambrose Rehorek, Jana Brike, Dilka , Chuck Sperry, Junko Mizuno, Naoto Hattori and Ciou

KOCHXBOS   CONTEMPORARY   ART GALLERY  AMSTERDAM
1e Anjeliersdwarsstraat 36, 1015 NR Amsterdam, The Netherlands
www.kochxbos.com      [email protected]   www.kochxbos-store.com
+31 20 6814567          H +31 6 2224 0808          E +31 6 2884 6653

LEARN MORE

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Sperry in Popland 3 Curated by Ciou at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam

Popland 3 – Curated by Ciou
at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
Saturday 13 May – Saturday 10 June

Opening Saturday 13 May, 15:00 – 19:00

Welcome, Popsurrealism friends from all over the world! For the third time in a row artist Ciou (Toulouse, FR) has curated the créme de la créme of Pop Surrealism Art. She has done an amazing job with bringing together the best, internationally renowned artists and emerging talent for Popland 3.

The amazing line up is: Junko Mizuno, Japan – Victor Castillo , Chile – Moira Hahn , USA – Peca , Argentina – AHoy, Australia – Sonya Fu , Hong kong – Chuck Sperry, USA – Dave Cooper , USA – Wadachizu, Japan – Nouar, USA – Yusei Abe, Japan – Jacki Jo, USA – Nicoletta Ceccoli, San Marino – Malojo, France – Erlend Tait , Scotland – Miss Van , France and Ciou, France 

Contact the gallery for more info at kochxbos.com

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“Heathen Child” Painting

Heathen Child painting by Chuck Sperry, 2011

I’m still riffing on the ideas that opened up when creating the SFMOMA Window Gallery installation. How to synthesize painting with silkscreen printing? What about a rock image makes a great painting? How can the processes of silkscreen printing, especially the layering effects, be brought off as a painting?

I brought some elements of the Window installation painting, “Saint Everyone,” to my new painting, “Heathen Child.” I’m working from a rock poster palette and from rock poster imagery. The Ginderman poster was the basis for the imagery of “Heathen Child,” but I wanted to take this in a new direction with materials and technique.

I used my circle patterns and carefully silkscreened a wide selection of patterns in different sizes in heavy metallic blue silver with green tinting on very delicate japanese printing paper. I was sure this would make a wonderful color for the background of the painting, layer nicely and become embedded in the surface of the canvas.

I laid a thick layer of cadmium red for the figure and flowers. This was modeled – shaded and highlighted – with many glazes of fluorescent red and orange to build up the surface and form. I brushed in shadows of cadmium and knocked those back with subsequent glaze layers of fluorescent. I needed the final edge color to be intense enough to eye-fry when the blue line was brushed on at the end. But wanted the shadow effects to translate in the finished art.

The lava forms were built up with fluorescent push-pull with cadmium, but the difference there was to build up a highlighted finish with pearl lustre. There is an pearlescent finish on the lava forms.

After the red areas were treated I put the background. Each circle was carefully cut out and then puzzled right to the edge of the red figure. I used gloss gel medium for under the paper surface and liquid gloss medium brushed over the paper surface.

Cobalt and permanent green for the foliage over the layered paper at the foreground.

Then when the brush and stars aligned – I finished the figure with blue eye-fry paint – first-stroke best stroke style – breathing deeply and making gestural strokes until it was finished with a very nice worked-in brush.

Like “Saint Everyone” – “Heathen Child” is a painting exploring direct religious experience in a psychedelic key of fluorescent, and perhaps a little more pagan or pantheistic in scope. Here’s some details (click to see larger):

Heathen Child, 2011

Acrylic and applique on canvas

24 x 26

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Heathen Child is available through Varnish Fine Art Gallery, 16 Jesse Street, San Francisco.

I’m really happy to see Jen Rogers and Kerri Stephens have brought Varnish Fine Art back to life and have such cool new digs for shows!

Varnish Fine Art Relaunch Part I

September 24 – through – November 5, 2011

group show with: Chris Mars, Robert Williams, Jennybird Alcantara, Laurie Lipton, Isabel Samaris, Scott Musgrove, Annie Owens, Craig LaRotonda, Nathan Spoor, Chuck Sperry, Kevin Peterson, Beth Bojarski, Edith Lebeau, Aunia Kahn, Ciou, Robert Bowen, Sri Zeno Whipple, Winston Smith, Kevin Evans, Dylan Sisson, Skot Olsen

 

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