Chuck Sperry

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July 23, 2019 By squirt

Sperry Posters in “PEARL JAM: LIVE IN TWO DIMENSIONS”

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry
Chuck Sperry & Chris Shaw design for Pearl Jam will rock San Francisco transit for the rest of the summer!

Opening on Saturday, July 27 at the Haight Street Art Center in San Francisco, PEARL JAM: LIVE IN TWO DIMENSIONS is an extensive exhibition of Pearl Jam gig posters. Covering the entire official Pearl Jam poster series from its origins, development, and eventual growth into one of rock’s most remarkable achievements in graphic art, this show will serve hardcore poster collectors, casual fans, and the general public alike.

The opening reception of PEARL JAM: LIVE IN TWO DIMENSIONS will take place on Saturday, July 27th from 5pm – 8pm. The exhibition will be free and open to the public through September 2019.

A very limited offering of Sperry’s Pearl Jam Miami poster will be available to buy at the opening. Chuck will be at the opening to sign his books – High Volume, Helikon and Chthoneon – which will be available through Haight Street Art Center. 

Brought together below is a check-list of all the posters Chuck Sperry created for Pearl Jam, Ten Club and Eddie Vedder. Which is your favorite? Which ones will be in the show? Which posters do you have in your collection?

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry, Chris Shaw

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Pearl Jam Live in Two Dimensions, Haight Street Art Center, Chuck Sperry

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Ames Brothers, Chris Shaw, Chthoneon, Chuck Sperry, Eddie Vedder, EMEK, Haight Street Art Center, Helikon, High Volume, Pearl Jam, Ten Club

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

________________

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

October 15, 2016 By squirt

The Rock Poster Society • Festival of Posters 2016

chuck-sperry-portrait
Photo credit: Bless Hyperion

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-6-04-06-pm

The first time Chuck Sperry saw a psychedelic rock poster he was 5 or 6 and had mustered up the nerve to climb the attic stairs into his big brother’s bedroom.

There, pinned to the wall, was a drawing of a fat prop plane with umbrellas. He studied the lettering, then sneaked back up a second time until he could finally make out the words, “Jefferson Airplane, an Ectodelic Trip, Civic Auditorium Dance, June 4, 9-1, $2.25.”

“I remember staring at that poster in the late 60’s while my brother Jody and I recorded The Who’s Tommy in its entirety on a reel-to-reel tape recorder,” said Sperry laughing.

airplane-poster

Sperry followed that poster to Haight-Ashbury, where he found love, an amazing apartment and the charmed life of a poster artist.

He timed it just right to have been selected by art director Arelene Owseichik to join Bill Graham Presents’ “New Fillmore Series” of posters in 1994. His career spanning 500+ handmade, limited edition, screen printed Rock Posters and art prints – not to mention 200+ art shows in over a dozen countries – has not slowed since then.

In fact, Sperry’s career is speeding up; He will have a solo exhibition in New York City at Spoke Art Gallery on November 19, 2016. There he will present his newest wood panels and archived classic rock posters and art prints. He will also present his newest book, “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry” devoted entirely to his screenprint on wood panels.

vivien-chuck-sperry

“Recently I had the great honor to make five posters – over the last year – for The Who. They gave me massive props by showing my posters on the huge stadium stage screen before and after their concerts. When I saw them in Oakland this year, I thought about my brother and me in 1969 in his room under that Jefferson Airplane poster.”

the-who-oakland-chuck-sperry

On Saturday, Oct. 22, Sperry’s art will proudly be on display at the Festival of Rock Posters in the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

The Festival, put on by the nonprofit all-volunteer Rock Poster Society, is a highly anticipated annual art event. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of the psychedelic rock poster. To honor this important milestone, artists, dealers, and collectors are coming from around the country, to create one of the largest TRPS events to date.

“The psychedelic style stood out from everything else,” says Sperry, now 54, and still a resident of that same apartment in The Haight.

Sperry has lived in The Haight for 26 years, and has worked as an artist for all that time. He’s made shows from Buenos Aires to Paris, Athens to Japan. His art is in the permanent collections of many prominent museums as well as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He owns an art studio/gallery in West Oakland where he regularly hosts very well-attended art shows and open houses. Presently he is working on a series of four Jerry Garcia portraits for the Garcia family’s foundation, which collectors are avidly awaiting.

jerry-web

“Wes Wilson did a series of 10 or 12 posters that ignited all of these other artists to get started,” Sperry says. “Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley,Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin were breaking all the printing rules by putting colors like red and blue next to each other, which vibrated the eye. You had to be hip in order to even read the posters. It was really a revolutionary artistic statement.”

According to Ben Marks, vice president of the Rock Poster Society, the style for psychedelic rock posters can be traced to that most un-psychedelic of bands, the Association, singing “Windy” and “Cherish”. It was drawn by Wilson using flames for lettering. If you’ve taken a course in hippie hieroglyphics you can make out the words “July 22-23, Fillmore Auditorium.”’

SONY DSC

“San Francisco’s Psychedelic style completely changed graphic aesthetics around the world,” says Sperry. The 50th anniversary of the Human Be-In is Jan. 14, and that will launch a year of tributes to the Summer of Love. Posters from the Be-In, and other Summer of Love shows will be at the Hall of Flowers and so will three of the artists, Moscoso, Mouse and Wilson, signing posters. Also there, will be Emek and Gary Houston from Portland, Jim Pollock from Chicago, Mark Arminski from Detroit, and Sperry.

Admission fee will decrease as the day goes on. Get there at 10 a.m. and it is $20. At 11 a.m. it drops to $10 and after 3 p.m. it is free. The risk in waiting is that the good stuff may already be gone. The line is expected to form at dawn, with people in lawn chairs.

Last year, Sperry was able to find a mint-condition tour program from the Grateful Dead tour of Egypt, in 1978, for $100. The artist, Mouse, signed it for him, and Chuck was stoked.

“The collectors are so fervent that they want to get their hands on these limited edition posters first thing in the morning,” says Sperry. “We’re talking about a tradition that started in 1966, and there is still this great enthusiasm!”

Festival of Rock Posters: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Hall of Flowers, Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park. Admission: $5 for members. For non-members $20 at 10 a.m., $10 at 11 a.m., free after 3 p.m. trps.org

WIDESPREAD-PANIC-CHUCK-SPERRYChuck-Sperry-Dave-MatthewsMORGANA WEB

Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Port Chester & NYC - Crystal Skull Edition of 25Pearl Jam April 9, 2016 Miami, FL poster by Chuck SperryPETE-SPARKLE

Black Sabbath “The End” Tour at Madison Square Garden NYC rock poster by Chuck SperryThe Art of Musical Maintenance 12 event poster by Chuck Sperry - Black Satin Edition of 7

SPERRY-PANIC-WEBWIDESPREAD-PANIC-LAVA-SPERRY

WEB BEATLE BLOTTER - JOHNWEB BEATLE BLOTTER - PAUL

WEB BEATLE BLOTTER - GEORGEWEB BEATLE BLOTTER - RINGO FIXXED

 

dryad-web

Filed Under: News, Press & Reviews Tagged With: Arlene Owseichik, Bill Graham, EMEK, Festival of Rock Posters 2016, Gary Houston, Jim Pollock, Mark Arminski, SFGate, Spoke Art, Stanley Mouse, The Rock Poster Society, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson

May 31, 2015 By squirt

Pearl Jam Poster Art at SeaTac Airport, Seattle

pj_sea_8

Last week Pearl Jam, EMP, SeaTac Airport debuted the “Push Me, Pull Me” poster exhibit at the Seattle International Airport (SeaTac). I am very honored to have my art represented in the show! This exhibit will run for a minimum of 2 years and possibly longer. If you are traveling through Seattle take a walk by Terminal A1 to check it out.

Unveiling of new EMP Museum exhibit on Pearl Jam’s historical poster art as the latest installment of the Sea-Tac Airport Experience the City of Music Program, 27 May 2015, Concourse A, Sea-Tac Airport.
Unveiling of new EMP Museum exhibit on Pearl Jam’s historical poster art as the latest installment of the Sea-Tac Airport Experience the City of Music Program, 27 May 2015, Concourse A, Sea-Tac Airport.
Unveiling of new EMP Museum exhibit on Pearl Jam’s historical poster art as the latest installment of the Sea-Tac Airport Experience the City of Music Program, 27 May 2015, Concourse A, Sea-Tac Airport.
Unveiling of new EMP Museum exhibit on Pearl Jam’s historical poster art as the latest installment of the Sea-Tac Airport Experience the City of Music Program, 27 May 2015, Concourse A, Sea-Tac Airport.

Filed Under: Events, News, Rock Posters Tagged With: Ames Bros., Brad Klausen, Chuck Sperry, EMEK, EMP, Ken Taylor, Munk One, Pearl Jam, Push Me Pull Me, SeaTac Airport

December 12, 2013 By squirt

The Art of Musical Maintenance 10 at Goodfoot, Portland

AMM

The Goodfoot in Portland, Oregon is proud to announce that “The Art of Musical Maintenance 10″ is open until Jan 27th. Goodfoot is displaying the newest installment of their annual show of music posters from around the country. The artists in this show are as diverse as the music. Likewise, the artist’s techniques vary as well (from hand drawn to computer generated design). There are over 40 artists from around the country, and around 300 framed posters.

Artists in the show: Alan Hynes, Ben Wilson, Billy Perkins, Brad Klausen, Brian Methe, Carisa Lu Von Gasser,Chris Haberman, Chris Shaw, Chuck Sperry, Craig Horky, Dan Stiles, Dan Ness, David D’ Andrea, David Welker, DKNG studio, EMEK, Frank Kozik, Furturtle, Gary Houston, Gigart,Guy Burwell, Heidi Elise Wirz, James Flames, Jay Ryan, Jeff Wood, John Howard, John Vogl, Justin Hampton, Justin Helton, Justin Santora, Lil Tuffy, Marq Spusta, Mirjam Dijkema, Nate Duval, Powerslide Design, T-Bone Aljaxx, Todd Slater, Tyler Stout, Uncle Charlie, zoltron

Check the Goodfoot website for a full catalog of posters online –  soon!

The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark, Portland, Oregon
503-239-9292

Open daily 5-2:30

Filed Under: Events, News, Rock Posters Tagged With: Alan Hynes, Ben Wilson, Billy Perkins, Brad Klausen, Brian Methe, Carisa Lu Von Gasser, Chris Haberman, Chris Shaw, Chuck Sperry, Craig Horky, Dan Ness, Dan Stiles, David D' Andrea, David Welker, DKNG studio, EMEK, Frank Kozik, Furturtle, Gary Houston, Gigart, Guy Burwell, Heidi Elise Wirz, James Flames, Jay Ryan, Jeff Wood, John Howard, John Vogl, Justin Hampton, Justin Helton, Justin Santora, Lil Tuffy, Marq Spusta, Mirjam Dijkema, Nate Duval, Powerslide Design, T-Bone Aljaxx, Todd Slater, Tyler Stout, Uncle Charlie, Zoltron

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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