Chuck Sperry

By

Sperry Opens Show in Paris at L’Oeil Ouvert December 14

FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
The Art of Chuck Sperry

14 December 2024 to 31 January 2025
Opening: Saturday, December 14

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

PARIS, FRANCE: My solo exhibition “Future In The Balance” opens Saturday, December 14 and will be on view through January 31, 2025 at L’Oeil Ouvert Gallery, Paris where I will be showing new works, archive rarities, test prints and wood panels. 

“The artworks featured in the “Future In The Balance” 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

READ MORE: VILLE DE PARIS

READ MORE: SORTIR A PARIS

READ MORE: ARTS SPECTACLES PARIS

READ MORE: JDS MAGAZINE PARIS

READ MORE: SOUFFLE INEDIT

READ MORE: FP92 TV

READ MORE: PARIS JE T’AIME 

READ MORE: LOISIRA MAG FRANCE

LUXURY PLACE MAGAZINE FRANCE

LISTEN: OUI FM

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

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.”

Chuck Sperry splits his time between his home in Grasse, France and his home in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco where he is inspired by the natural settings and flower power of both.

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

By

Sperry Weekend Events: “Home Show” Retrospective, TRPS, and “Ratified” at The Roxie

Home Show, A Chuck Sperry Retrospective, 2024
19 x 35
Edition of 300
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and numbered

Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective is opening this week! The exhibition includes rock posters, art prints on paper and wood, deep cuts from the artist’s 40-year career, and the West Coast premiere of several hand-woven tapestries. Running from October 17-November 24, 2024, the exhibition is Sperry’s most comprehensive exhibition since his Color x Color retrospective at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in 2022 and his first local exhibition since the acquisition last spring of four of his pieces by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two of which were featured in Art of Noise this summer.

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

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

Check out all Chuck Sperry’s upcoming events below:

Friday, Oct. 18, 1 PM – 9 PM: Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective
Only a couple of tickets left to get a chance to purchase a piece of Chuck’s work yourself! Check out the ticket availability HERE! From 6-9 PM is a free opening reception for Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective. Join us in kicking off a poster-filled weekend!

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Saturday, Oct. 19, 10 AM-6 PM: TRPS Fes­ti­val of Rock Posters 2024
Chuck Sperry will concentrate on poster and print offerings at TRPS this year: he’ll have many surprises, rarities, variants, one-of-a-kind test prints, black & white tests, and blotters — from Pearl Jam to Panic — to offer exclusively at TRPS on Saturday, October 19, 2024! San Francisco’s annual Fall Clas­sic, the Rock Poster Society’s Fes­ti­val of Rock Posters 2024 is set to go for Sat­ur­day at the San Fran­cisco County Fair Build­ing (aka Hall of Flow­ers) in beau­ti­ful Golden Gate Park.

Ratified, 2024
21 x 31.5
Edition of 300
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and numbered

Monday, Oct. 21, 6-8 PM: RATIFIED new screen print by Chuck Sperry
A Film Showing of RATIFIED co-presented by Roxie Theater and Spoke Art. Featuring a new limited edition screen print by Chuck Sperry, part of the ongoing Spoke Art curated Roxie Theater poster series. Posters are only available on Monday, October 21. 

RATIFIED is a feature documentary about the 100-year struggle for constitutional gender equality. It’s an inspiring story of a multi-racial, multi-generational, bi-partisan effort to make Virginia the 38th and final state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. It’s also a story of how bureaucracy is used to stifle progress and takes a close look at the incredible perseverance of women – specifically, the Black women leaders who have taken their rightful place at the front of the movement for gender equality.

Tickets HERE

Deepak Puri & Forest Stearns in a post-screening discussion facilitated by RATIFIED subject, Kati Hornung.

Kati Hornung, Executive Director of VoteEquality
Kati advocates for an equality table so large every American can find a seat. Her gender equality advocacy work was memorialized in the movie RATIFIED, as the cameras followed the successful VAratifyERA campaign and later VoteEquality. Kati has a professional background in accounting and software consulting. Although initially involved in advocacy because of her oldest child’s interest, she rediscovered a passion for feminism that had been simmering on a back burner since childhood. Kati is very “task oriented” and the task she most wants to accomplish is the complete dismantling of systemic gender inequality. Step one: closing the equality gap in our Constitution.

Deepak Puri, Co-Founder of Democracy Labs
Deepak is the co-founder of Democracy Labs, a SF based non-profit that connects progressive groups with free and affordable solutions. DemLabs works closely with grassroots groups to identify their needs, finds the best solution to meet them, and then freely shares how to use those new tools through a free blog with over 1,900 case studies. Deepak is a Silicon Valley veteran with fifteen years of experience at Netscape, Oracle, and VMware.

Forest Stearns, Artist
Forest Stearns is the Principal Artist at DRAWEVERYWHERE LLC where he produces unique artwork and leads collaborations between artists and institutions. He has a passion for founding Artist in Residence programs that connect art, science, and technology. Currently he is the Creative Innovation Consultant and Artist in Residence co-founder at Google Quantum AI in Santa Barbara, CA. Stearns is an academically trained prolific illustrator, an arts educator, creative facilitator and community builder. Also an engaged father and supportive partner, he was one of twenty-eight artists who launched the national Artists4ERA collection in support of the VoteEquality campaign and the fully ratified Twenty-Eighth Amendment (Equal Rights).

By

Chuck Sperry Retrospective at Haight Street Art Center in October

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective
Haight Street Art Center
215 Haight St, San Francisco
Hours: Thursday-Sunday, 12-6pm

October 17-November 24
Opening: Friday, October 18

Ticketing information to be announced soon.
Make sure to sign up for my mailing list to get all the latest news!

The Haight Street Art Center is delighted to present Home Show: A Chuck Sperry Retrospective, an exhibition of rock-posters, art prints on paper and wood, deep cuts from the artist’s 40-year career, and the San Francisco premiere of the several hand-woven tapestries. Running from October 17 through November 24, 2024, with an opening reception on Friday October 18, the exhibition is Sperry’s most comprehensive exhibition since his Color x Color retrospective at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art in 2022, and his first local exhibition since the acquisition last spring of four of his pieces by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, two of which were featured in Art of Noise exhibition this summer.

Inspired by our human impulse to create, Home Show underscores what it means to be a maker in the 21st century, designing and producing work that straddles fine art, entertainment, and craftsmanship. The exhibition spans Sperry’s long and influential career, featuring new silkscreen prints from the artist’s ongoing “Muse” series and rare works, including a number of original pieces, from his archive.

Photo: Shaun Roberts

At a moment when algorithms and computers are increasingly being used to do creative work, what is the role of the artist or craftsperson? This question is personal for Sperry: as the design and production of cultural ephemera is increasingly automated or outsourced, his dedication to the craft of screen printing and the art of gig posters has become somewhat anomalous. Still, Sperry is confident that the human spark of creativity will persist. “Art made by humans for humans in physical reality is imbued with the soul of our humanity,” he says. “Our uniquely mortal heart and immortal spirit, drawn from our human culture, collective unconscious, and experience will transcend the current imperative for non-human and virtual intervention in the art space.”

Photo: Shaun Roberts

Drawing influence from the playwrights and poets of Classical Antiquity to the artist-designers of Art Nouveau, Sperry’s vivid, colorful screen prints merge the worlds of art, entertainment, and politics seamlessly, just as his predecessors did. Patterns of brightly colored foliage emanate from behind a woman’s head, her hair falling across her body or taken up by a gust of wind. Often, she looks directly at the viewer, standing in her power and control. Sperry’s muses carry names from Greek mythology, tracing their knowledge and image to the goddesses of art, science, and religion. This ongoing interest in ancient knowledge and texts such as the Orphic Hymns places Sperry’s practice of image-making into a long—and very human—lineage.

By

“Only Human” Sperry Solo at Harman Projects in New York City

CHUCK SPERRY – ONLY HUMAN

APRIL 13 – MAY 4, 2024

Harman Projects is pleased to announce Only Human, a solo show by artist Chuck Sperry.

Opening  Recepetion:
Saturday, April 13th
VIP Hours : 1pm – 6pm
General Admission : 6 pm – 8 pm

Gallery Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday / 10 am – 6 pm

Harman Projects on Rivington:
210 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002

NEW YORK CITY—Inspired by our human impulse to create, Chuck Sperry’s solo exhibition Only Human at Harman Projects underscores what it means to be a maker in the 21st century. The exhibition spans Sperry’s long and influential career, featuring new silkscreen prints from the artist’s ongoing “Muse” series and rare works from his archive. Straddling fine art, entertainment, and craftsmanship, Sperry believes being “only” human is something extraordinary.

When algorithms and computers do creative work, where do artists or craftsmen fit in? This question is personal for Sperry: as the design and production of cultural ephemera is increasingly automated or outsourced, his dedication to silk screen printing and the art of the gig poster has become somewhat anomalous. Still, he’s confident that the human spark of creativity will persist. “[A]rt made by humans for humans in physical reality is imbued with the soul of our humanity,” the artist reflects. “Our uniquely mortal heart and immortal spirit, drawn from our human culture, our human collective unconscious and experience, will transcend the current imperative for non-human and virtual intervention in the art space.” 

Drawing influence from the playwrights and artisans of Classical Antiquity to the hybrid artist-designers of the Art Nouveau movement, Sperry’s vivid, colorful screen prints merge the worlds of art, entertainment, and politics seamlessly just as his predecessors did. Patterns of brightly colored foliage emanate from behind a woman’s head, her hair falling across her body or taken up by a gust of wind. Often, she looks directly at the viewer, standing in her power and control. These muses carry names from Greek mythology, tracing their knowledge and image to the goddesses of art, science, and religion. Sperry’s ongoing interest in ancient knowledge and texts, like the Orphic Hymns, places his practice of image-making into a long—and very human—lineage. Reanimating ideas and icons that have persisted since ancient history, Sperry taps into enduring human ideals of art and storytelling to celebrate the complexities of being only human. 

Please join us on April 13th from 6 pm to 8 pm at 210 Rivington Street in New York City for the opening of Only Human. The artist will be in attendance.

By

Sperry Solo Show in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury with Psychedelic SF Gallery

Psychedelic SF Gallery is pleased to present Chuck Sperry in “My Mind’s Eye” — a solo art exposition by the world famous printmaking master. For his upcoming solo in San Francisco, Chuck will be showing new and archive blotter art, archive panels, a selection of editions on paper, rare test prints and surprises.

American artist Chuck Sperry is renown for his ethereal, psychedelically saturated screen prints that draw crowds of dedicated fans around the world. Iconic in both the concert music and art worlds — Sperry draws inspiration from the raw energy of live performances his art enhances — and stylistically from graffiti, pop art, and Art Nouveau. He currently imagines a verdant garden of new work tended by his signature shimmering muses, calling this work a “utopian provocation.”

On view: February 3, 2024 – April 2024.

Opening: Saturday, February 3, 4 pm to 8 pm.

Psychedelic SF Gallery Presents:
“My Mind’s Eye” a Chuck Sperry solo exhibition
1399 Haight Street • San Francisco

In my minds eye
Things are clearer than before
Showing me the way
Asking me to stay
I’ll never close the door
To all these things and more

— Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane (Small Faces)

Archives

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

Latest Blog Posts