Chuck Sperry

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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!

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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!

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Poster Show in Paris

 

Chuck Sperry Rock Art

Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 7 pm to 11:30 pm

Sésame, 51 Quai de Valmy, Paris (Xeme)

Heading to Paris and Marseille to make a visit to France, and to catch a little R & R. Rock and Roll, or Rest and Relaxation, depending on how you look at it. I fly out Sunday morning after the TRPS show in Golden Gate Park. I refuse to say anything else on the grounds that it may incriminate me – haha – yes, Pappa’s coming back to the 11th Arrondissement and the fair City of Marseille. Let’s have some fun!

My host Léna Balacco owner of Sésame:

“Même si je ne le présente plus c’est toujours avec le même (putain de) plaisir le recevoir… Cette fois-ci, il ne sera là qu’un soir avec ses dernières sérigraphies sorties de son atelier de San Francisco. Ce sera rock, ce sera court et bon, ce sera un 13 et l’on sera nombreux. Prenez du cash les enfants, le Rock Art va envahir nos murs, ça n’arrive qu’une fois cette année et c’est au Sésame, évidemment. à jeudi prochain.”

 

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Firehouse & Les Editions Pénibles at Sésame, Paris

My dear friends at Sésame in Paris are making an exhibition of my posters and my friends’ posters Les Editions Pénibles from June 6 to July 10, 2011. I won’t be able to be at this opening, but I will be going to Sésame with my newest works in October 2011. If you’re in Paris you can go by Sésame on the side of the Canal St. Michel at 51 Quai de Valmy in the Xth Arrondissement, metro Republique. Alexandre D’Huy and Silvio Magaglio of Les Editions Pénibles will be present at the opening, and Léna Balacco, owner of Sésame, will be present most every day if you should like to have a great coffee, great food, friendly atmosphere and discuss rock n roll poster art.

 

Firehouse & Les Editions Pénibles

at Sésame, Paris, 51 Quai de Valmy, Xth Arrondissement, metro Republique

June 6 to July 10. 2011

Vernissage, June 6, 2011 at 7 pm.

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Sesame, Paris Memories – July 1, 2010

After making our show for a week at the Glastonbury Music Festival, Ron and I took the long train ride to Paris from Bristol. We had been out of contact for a week or more and we were driven to show up right on time for our big Paris show at Sesame, the restaurant / gallery owned by our very dear friend Lena Balacco, at 51 quai de Valmy, Paris 75010. Good news, Lena has extended our very successful show at Sesame until September 6th, 2010.

We arrived by cab just in time. Lena gave me a running hug that just about knocked me over! The show looked beautiful! What a fantastic night! It was so great to catch up with all my old friends there. Lena and her husband Charles Mammarot and their daughter (my adorable God-daughter Elvis) have made such a beautiful life here at the edge of the canal St. Martin. We stayed here in Paris for a week, and really fell into a sweet life, hanging out with Lena and Charles and brother Jin Balacco, criss-crossing Paris on moped, playing petanque in the square nearby, having great dinners, visiting old friends, like my very good friend Alexandre D’Huy and his girlfriend Atsoupe. Here’s some pictures of the show, life with Charles and Lena and fun evenings at the edge of the canal.

Jin and Lena – Sesame and show (click image for larger view):

Lena enjoying drinks by the canal with Sesame in the background (Psychedelic Secession poster visible in window):

Family portrait at the flea market near Republique. I bought my girlfriend Nancy a cool jewel box here from the time of Napoleon III:

View of the canal in front of Sesame:

Alexandre D’Huy – we made a couple of spontaneous shows with Alex while we were staying in Paris (see the next posts):

Nothing compares to great conversation at the end of every night with Charles and a few glasses of pastis:

And nothing goes better with pastis than petanque in the park. Ron draws a picture in the sand with Elvis while Charles throws a ball into the trees:

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Psychedelic Secession

Firehouse returns to Europe for the first tour on The Continent in two years. Firehouse has been touring Europe since 1999 – here’s a complete list of past shows.

We are eager to share our newest work, and very pleased to be able to share our posters with old friends made over the first decade of touring Europe.

Check back as I’ll be posting specific Art Opening times for each venue / and tour poster image.

Our Europe 2010 Tour is called “Psychedelic Secession,” and is aimed at connecting to poster movements of the Decadent Period and Belle Epoque in Europe, folding that connection into the Psychedelic Period of San Francisco in the 1960’s, and moving ahead at the forefront of the present modern global silkscreen poster movement.

“Firehouse, based in San Francisco, is a supremely renegade printshop, a partnership of two master screen printers, Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan. Sperry is a hot-button cartoonist from the political ‘zine and post-Zap Comix tradition, while Donovan does wheelies on their computer.” – King and Grushkin, “The Art of Modern Rock.”

“Often referred to as “modern day masters of screen printing”, poster artists Ron Donovan and Chuck Sperry have been printing in San Francisco under the name “Firehouse” for close to 15 years, now. They have traveled the world exhibiting their work, and have been featured in numerous books and publications including Juxtapoz magazine, as well as on NBC. In addition to creating and printing their own work for bands such as Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, and Eric Clapton, they have also printed work for poster art giants such as Victor Moscoso, Gary Grimshaw, and Stanley Mouse. Armed with a subversive sense of humor, Chuck and Ron always make a trip to visit the Firehouse a good time.” – Merle Becker, director “American Artifact, The Rise of American Rock Poster Art.”

Italy

June 2-3 – Rome – Mondo Bizzarro, via Reggio Emilia, 32 – Opening: 7pm

June 4 – La Spezia – Club Shake, via Valdilocchi, 9 – with LIARS & Malleus – Opening: 7pm

June 5 – Genoa – Taxi Driver – Opening 7 pm.

June 6 – Pisa – Keith Café

June 7-8 – Pisa -Leningrad Café, Argini e Margini di Arno – Opening: 7pm

June 9 – Milan – Magnolia, Circonvallazione Idroscalo, 41, Segrate – Independent Music Festival with Ufomammut – Opening: 7pm

June 10 – Florence – Cuculia, via dei Serragli, 3r e 1r – with Alessandro Ansani, THE LIARS & “Eighties Colours” (book release) – Opening: 6:30 pm

June 11 – Florence – Black Candy – Opening: 7pm

June 12 – Milano – Alcatraz, via Valtellina, 25 – Firehouse poster for Bad Religion & Peawees – Opening: 7pm

July 4 – August 26 – Ancona – Mole Vanvitelliana, Sala Kliss

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Switzerland

June 16 – Lausanne – Les Docks, avenue de Sévelin, 34 – with music by Disc-a-Brac – Vernissage: 6:30pm

June 17 – Geneva – Usine / Moloko, place des Volontaires, 4 – Vernissage: 7pm

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UK with Jacknife

June 19 – Bristol – The Croft, 117-119 Stokes Croft – 1 pm until late

June 23-27 – Glastonbury Music Festival – all day every day

June 29 – London – Nottinghill Arts Club, 21 Notting Hill Gate – “Firewater Club” with live music: “The Invasion of…” – Opening 7 pm – 2 am

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France

July 1 – August 1 – Paris – Sesame, 51 Quai de Valmy – Vernissage: Thursday, July 1, 2010 – 7 pm

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Back home in Time for San Francisco Flatstock 25, Saturday, July 10, 2010 – 11 am

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