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December 31, 2012 By squirt

Primus Poster for “Frankenstein’s Masquerade New Years Ball” at The Warfield

PRIMUS-POSTER-SPERRY

Primus at The Warfield, December 31, 2012

Firehouse-Goldenvoice No. 172 / Primus Poster Series No. 83

16 x 22

Edition of 275

5 colors on archival cream paper

Signed and Numbered

Available tonight, December 31, 2012 through Primus at the show.

_______________

Tonight’s Perfectly Appropriate “Frankenstein’s Masquerade New Years Ball” Poster was drawn, printed, signed, numbered & hand delivered by local San Francisco Rock Poster Artist, Chuck Sperry.

Over the past 20+ years in SF, every Primus or Claypool related New years performance has a theme. This year’s theme is “Frankenstein’s Masquerade New Years Ball.” The idea was for each of us to do an artist’s homage to Frankenstein. Each poster would be inspired by a different historic artist – and by working with the same color palette and printing the posters at the same time, we would ensure a consistent overall theme.

The Frankenstein/Picasso themed poster is 5 colors of rich oil based ink, with a metallic undercoat – and is the match for last night’s sold out poster by Zoltron (the rad artist behind the silkscreen sticker printing company, Sticker Robot). Each night’s respective poster would be inspired by a different historic artist… Zoltron chose Warhol and Chuck chose Picasso. Both were cross pollinated with Frankenstein – and this is the result.

Zoltron and I have worked together many times over the years, but usually I’m inviting Zoltron to do posters for the coveted SF, Goldenvoice Poster Series – which I have curated and produced a poster series in the rich history of San Francisco’s 1960s rock poster tradition for the Avalon Ballroom, where I design or invite artists to design and print unique posters for events at the Regency Ballroom and the Warfield Theatre.

It just so happens that the Primus Poster Series, currently landing on poster #83, and The Goldvoice Series, currently at poster # 171, are literally merging on New Years at these two Warfield Primus shows.

125 tubed copies will be available at the merch booth tonight. And 125 will sell out. Be there early to make sure to snag one!

And remember to dress up for tonight’s on stage Costume Contest!

__________________

Here’s Zoltron’s amazing Warhol/Frankenstein’s Bride inspired poster from last night:

zoltron_primus_warfield_poster_640

And both together (as printed):

PRIMUS-WEB-WARFIELD

Online poster release date: Friday, January 4, 2013 at a random time.

 

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series, Primus, Sticker Robot, The Warfield, Zoltron

October 21, 2011 By squirt

Primus Santa Barbara Poster

Primus Santa Barbara, California

Friday, October 21, 2011

17.75 x 25.25

Edition of 200

3 colors on archival white paper

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT – Thank You!

________________

I drew my Primus design the first thing in the morning the day I arrived in Paris, literally waking up after San Francisco’s Rock Poster Society’s Festival of Posters, in France, a little stunned, drinking morning coffee with my friends Léna Balacco who owns Sésame where I had my Paris poster show last Thursday. I started drawing right away laughing and rapping with Léna and husband Charles and their daughter Elvis, my god-daughter. Elvis likes dinosaurs and mythical monsters – so I drew this poster for her on a scrap of paper.

My good friend and former apprentice from the Beaux Arts, Alexandre d’Huy (who printed with me in Milan when I worked there) came over as I finished the drawing and color seps. Alex handed me a motorcycle helmet, and I hopped on the back of his Vespa and we flew across Paris to the silkscreen film-positive maker (a place with thousands of 1950s and 60s French movie posters hanging all over the walls) and made poster film separations. We buzzed south through Paris along the river on his Vespa to his studio in Vitry-en-Seine, a commie town with PCF posters everywhere, and I joked at a stoplight that we should use red, yellow and black like the commie posters pasted all around us, because you just can’t go wrong with that color scheme. Here’s a few photos of Alex and me printing in his secret graffiti lab in Paris.

Alex and I left the posters to dry and went to a little funk club called Les Oubliettes near Notre Dame on the Left Bank and climbed down a steep stone stair case to the catacomb cellar where Hemingway listened to jazz in the 1920’s, and we drank a couple beers in celebration. My San Francisco friend Jorge Gamboa put it nicely, “Chuck came outta cartooning. He hangs out with ultra uber wierdo French cartoonists in France. Him doin’ this in France makes sense. I like it. Primus is a goofy band anyway.”

Primus once called their music psychedelic polka. I was feeling the absurdity of that. Check this out – I flew from San Francisco to Paris to make a poster for a band from San Francisco – and then overnighted the poster back to California the next day – now THAT is goofy!

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Alexandre D'Huy, Charles Mammarot, Elvis, Lena Balacco, Primus, Sesame

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About Chuck Sperry

squirtChuck 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…

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  • Sperry Featured with Spoke Art at Art Basel / Context Art Miami
  • The Black Keys LA & SF Posters by Sperry
  • Sperry Career Retrospective at Fort Wayne Museum of Art in April 2020 • The Black Keys SF Poster Reveal
  • Chuck Sperry x Spoke Art at Art Basel / Context Art Fair • Part 2
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