Chuck Sperry

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September 13, 2024 By squirt

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.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, Haight Street, Haight Street Art Center, Haight-Ashbury, Home Show, Muses, San Francisco

January 17, 2024 By squirt

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)

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Chuck Sperry, Muses, Psychedelic SF, San Francisco, Solo Exposition

November 19, 2019 By squirt

The Black Keys LA & SF Posters by Sperry

The Black Keys, Los Angeles 2019
22 x 35
Edition of 480
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
________________
The Black Keys, Los Angeles 2019
22 x 35
Sparkle Foil Edition of 20
7 colors on holographic sparkle foil
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
________________
The Black Keys, Los Angeles 2019
22 x 35
Lava Foil Edition of 20
7 colors on holographic lava foil
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
________________
The Black Keys, San Francisco 2019
22 x 35
Edition of 430
7 colors on cream paper
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
_______________
The Black Keys, San Francisco 2019
22 x 35
Sparkle Foil Edition of 20
7 colors on holographic sparkle foil
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
_______________
The Black Keys, San Francisco 2019
22 x 35
Lava Foil Edition of 20
7 colors on holographic lava foil
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
_______________
My Black Keys posters will be available officially through The Black Keys at the shows in LA & SF.
I will make a very limited online release of these posters and their variants on Thursday, November 21, 2019 at a random time.

I want to welcome a lot of newcomers to my site! I’ll quickly explain how my releases on my website are conducted. The Black Keys posters will be available, right here, in this post on Thursday, November 21, 2019 at a random time. A paypal “Buy Now” button will appear under each poster (above) at a random time, and I will announce the price of each poster at the same time. Good luck to everyone, and as always, I am very appreciative of your support!

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Chase Center, Chuck Sperry, Los Angeles, Muses, San Francisco, The Black Keys, The Forum

October 21, 2019 By squirt

“Know Thyself” Blotter & “Psych Out” Poster • Online Release

Between the Psych Out Party in Torino, Italy on October 5, and TRPS Festival of Posters in San Francisco, California on October 19 – I produced two psychedelic art pieces which I’d like to make available to you here. Both pieces were produced in limited quantities, and will be made available in a very limited online release on Wednesday, October 23, 2019 at a random time.

“Know Thyself” Blotter
Edition of 200
9 x 11.25
(1/4 inch perforations)
Vegetable based inks 
80# unbleached cotton paper 
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out – Thank You!

________________

Psych Out, 2019
28 x 20
B&W Variant Edition of 10
1 color on cream paper
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out – Thank You!

________________

Psych Out, 2019
28 x 20
Regular Holographic Edition of 50
1 color on lava foil
Signed and Numbered

Sold Out – Thank You!

________________

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Festival of Posters 2019, Psych Out, San Francisco, The Rock Poster Society, Torino, TRPS

August 24, 2017 By squirt

Peace, Love & Understanding, San Francisco, August 26, 2017

I am making this unsolicited peace offering because I love San Francisco…

Peace, Love and Understanding
Civic Center, San Francisco
Saturday, August 26th from 12pm – 5pm

Peace Love and Understanding seeks to focus on what unites us rather than what may divide us. Stand with us in celebration of the diversity that makes San Francisco and the nation stronger! — Speakers, music, and performances by Michael Franti and Spearhead, Malo, The Brothers Comatose, Momma’s Boyz, Marga Gomez & BeBe Sweetbriar.

“Right now it’s important that we not just stand against hate, but that we raise our voices with solidarity in support of diversity, inclusion and equality. Music is a unifying force in the world and in this time we need artists to standup, inspiring people to come together around these values.” – Michael Franti

Co-hosted by / Featuring: Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer, Galeria de la Raza, Stop the Violence, Women’s March San Francisco, Castro Community On Patrol, Queer Nation-San Francisco, 7×7, Unafraid, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Welcome

Peace, Love & Understanding protest poster images ready for action!

All You Need Is Love by Chuck Sperry

 

 

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Civic Center, Malo, Marga Gomez & BeBe Sweetbriar, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Momma's Boyz, Peace Love and Understanding, San Francisco, The Brothers Comatose

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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

  • 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
  • Sperry Joins “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” Exhibition
  • Chuck Sperry’s “Danaide” • New Art Print Launch

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