Chuck Sperry

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“Pythia” Blotter Art Release & Book Signing at Haight Street Art Center

Pythia, 2023
9 x 6.25
Edition of 200
Perforated blotter paper
Signed and Numbered

Join me for an “in-person” book signing and blotter release at the Haight Street Art Center this Sunday, April 23, 2023. 

I’ll be making a very limited release of my Pythia blotters in collaboration with Shakedown Gallery with the support of the Haight Street Art Center at this event. In addition, I’ll be signing my books: “Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive, 1980-2020”, my 750 page career spanning retrospective, and my muse books “Idyllion”, “Chthoneon” and “Helikon”.

Haight Street Art Center
215 Haight St (at Laguna)
San Francisco, CA 94102

Sunday April 23, 2023
12 noon to 1 pm: Haight Street Art Center Members Only.
1 pm to 4 pm: General Public

Become a member HERE

From the Haight Street Art Center concerning the show:

Kaleidoscope Eyes: Celebrating The 80th Anniversary of Bicycle Day Through Blotter Art

On April 19th, 1943, Swiss chemist Dr. Albert Hofmann intentionally ingested a small amount of LSD and then rode his bicycle home, experiencing history’s first intentional LSD trip. He later described the experience as “a remarkable and memorable day.”

In subsequent decades LSD moved from laboratories to the streets and was often circulated via perforated sheets of paper known as “blotter paper,” frequently adorned with colorful designs and unique symbols. The art served as both an ad hoc form of branding and created a playful connection between the distributor and the intended audience.

In the 1980s blotter art began to be collected and displayed as a form of underground folk art, particularly due to the zealous enthusiasm of collector and counterculture archivist Mark McCloud.

The Kaleidoscope Eyes exhibit brings together pieces of historical blotter art with pieces from modern screenprint masters and popular rock artists alongside pieces signed by internationally-renown psychedelic luminaries and even some pieces from the legendary Institute of Illegal Images amassed by McCloud.

We’re excited to be partnering with Shakedown Gallery in our retail space and will be offering limited edition signed and unsigned Blotter art through the run of this exhibit.

Also showing: 

• Olga Spiegel: Pioneer in Psychedelic Art 

• The Haight-Ashbury Experience and the Pursuit of Happiness: The Photography of Herb Greene

• Enough Is Enough: End Gun Violence

• Via Dolorosa, The 14 Stations of Tyre Nichols by John Mavroudis

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Chuck Sperry at Art Market San Francisco

I’m thrilled to announce I will be exhibiting with Harman Projects at Art Market San Francisco 2023 – April 20 to 23. Art Market San Francisco is the Bay Area’s longest running art fair. It returns to Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion in April 2023 with 85 top galleries from around the world. Join us!

Address:
Fort Mason Center – Festival Pavilion
2 Marina Blvd.
San Francisco, CA 94123

Dates:
Select VIP Preview: Thursday April 20, 2023 | 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Opening: Thursday April 20, 2023 | 6:00pm – 9:00pm

General Admission:
Friday, April 21, 2023 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday, April 22, 2023 |  11:00am – 7:00pm
Sunday, April 23, 2023 |  11:00am – 6:00pm

Please, all inquiries should be made to Harman Projects concerning all details including entry and available art work. An advance collector’s preview will be available online before the exhibition opens, if you would like to receive a price list please contact us here: If there is a particular artist you are interested in please note that in your email.

https://www.harmanprojects.com/contact

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Widespread Panic Vegas “Venus” Lottery Release Announcement

I’m extremely happy to be back to making rock concert posters. Making my “Venus” poster for Widespread Panic’s Las Vegas weekend was the perfect way to get back into the concert schedule (with Venus’ gratitude for Diana’s offering). The 500 posters released to Widespread Panic fans at the shows were very well received. I heard from the band that I had a hit.

I would like to thank everyone for your patience and understanding during the unsuccessful release of my Widespread Panic poster. I was especially heart-warmed by the concern that so many of you expressed for my well-being. Your support was very much appreciated!

I am actively working on a detailed plan to address the bot issue and create a more enjoyable, secure and convenient online buying experience for my faithful supporters.

In the spirit of a fair release method, I will be making my release of Widespread Panic Vegas “Venus” by lottery.

Sign up to my mailing list (if you haven’t already). My email list subscribers will be the first to be alerted when the “Venus” prints and variants will be made available by lottery.

Sign up here: Sperry Email List 

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Widespread Panic Vegas “Venus” Poster

Widespread Panic, The Theater At Virgin Hotels Las Vegas
20 x 34.5
Edition of 500
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

We broke the internet. Terribly sorry for the news. I was working with technical solutions that now will take time to implement. I will reschedule the drop to a future date TBA.

As you may remember my last Widespread Panic poster featured Diana, goddess of the Moon, making an offering to Venus, the evening star, goddess of love. Many felt this was the one of the last posters released before the pandemic closed everything down. Now, after three years, it appears we’re back to a busy concert schedule. The Center for Disease Control will soon declare an official end to the pandemic. My Las Vegas poster shows Venus receiving Diana’s offering with gratitude.

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Sperry Art Shows in France in June and July

 

L’Oeil Ouvert
1 rue Lucien Sampaix
75010 Paris 
Opening Night Reception: June 4, 2022, 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm.
Exposition from June 4 to June 19, 2022

Art Génération
59 quai Saint Vincent
69001 Lyon
Opening Night Reception: July 2, 2022, 6:00 pm to 9:30 pm.
Exposition from July 2 to July 17, 2022

Art Génération of Paris and Lyon is pleased to present Chuck Sperry’s next tour — a traveling solo art exposition by San Francisco-based screen print master. 

For his upcoming solo expositions in Paris and Lyon, Chuck will be showing his latest editions on paper, and latest editions on oak panel. 
He will be presenting his new book “Color x Color: The Sperry Poster Archive 1980-2020” at the Lyon show.
Also available: a limited release of archive oak panels, rare test prints and surprises.

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.”

“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.”
– Chuck Sperry, Juxtapoz Magazine

Archives

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

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