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December 11, 2018 By squirt

“The Oracle” & “The Seer” Blotter Art Release & Book Signing, Chuck Sperry at Shakedown Gallery, Haight Street

 

Shakedown Gallery is hosting “Drop The Mics: A Blotter Art Show”.

Join us Saturday, December 15, 2018 for the exclusive San Francisco release of two new Chuck Sperry blotter art pieces – “The Oracle” & “The Seer.” Chuck Sperry will be there in person to sign his books, “Chthoneon, The Art of Chuck Sperry” & “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry.”

“Drop The Mics: A Blotter Art Show”
Exhibition and pop-up gallery

Shakedown Gallery
411 Haight Street 
San Francisco, California

Exhibition: December 1, 2018 to January 1, 2019

Chuck Sperry blotter release and book signing: 
Saturday, December 15 – 3pm to 6 pm.
Random lottery numbers will be handed out at 2:30 pm, half an hour before the show.

The Oracle
6 x 9
Edition of 150
Perforated blotter sheet
Signed and Numbered

The Seer
6 x 9
Edition of 150
Perforated blotter sheet
Signed and Numbered

________________

Drop the Mics features an amazing collection of art by some of your favorite psychedelic and visionary artists. The show will feature many signed limited blotter art editions, plus rare archival prints including pieces from Mark McCloud’s notorious Institute of Illegal Images.

New and Pre-Released limited edition artwork will be available from:

Alex Grey, Stanley Mouse, Chuck Sperry
Mark Henson, Emek, Jonathan Singer
David Cooley, Richard Biffle, Sommer Biffle
Mark McCloud, Banjo, Jeff Wood
Mike DuBois, Jonathan Solter, Randal Roberts
Tripp, Sarah Farah, Mikio, William Giese
Lizzy Layne, Bigfoot, Jake Kobrin, Zoltron

Stay tuned to Shakedown Gallery for updates on additional events happening during the month.

Filed Under: Art Prints Tagged With: Alex Grey, Banjo, Bigfoot, Chthoneon The Art of Chuck Sperry, Chuck Sperry, David Cooley, Drop The Mics, EMEK, Helikon The Muses of Chuck Sperry, Jake Kobrin, Jeff Wood, Jonathan Singer, Jonathan Solter, Lizzy Layne, Mark Henson, Mark McCloud, Mike DuBois, Mikio, Randal Roberts, Richard Biffle, Sarah Farah, Shakedown Gallery, Sommer Biffle, Stanley Mouse, The Oracle, The Seer, Tripp, William Giese, Zoltron

August 24, 2018 By squirt

“Litmus Test” Exhibition at Fort Wayne Museum of Art on September 14

Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era

Fort Wayne Museum of Art

Exhibition Opening Party: September 14, 6-9pm

September 15 – December 9, 2018

The Psychedelic Era was, among many things, a cultural frontier for colors and imagery. Music, politics, and drugs ignited an unprecedented expansion of art revolving around these elements. College campuses around the country, now seen as the birthing grounds for much of the psychedelic era’s ideals, were hotbeds for bright young minds to organize politically and artistically. From Berkeley College to the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, young idealists organized and the art of the era came to fruition. This exhibition will be our bridge to that time, showcasing a variety of psychedelic era works on paper.

Highlighting this experience is the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan. The poster work and ephemera of Gary Grimshaw and the photography of Leni Sinclair will showcase the art that poured out of that time and place. Blotter sheets from Mark Mothersbaugh, H.R. Giger, S. Clay Wilson, Chuck Sperry, and more will represent the creative fuel for many of the artists of the time. Also featured will be the work of the poster artists of the time: Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, and Alton Kelley. Lastly works by artists Alex and Allyson Grey and Isaac Abrams will display the fine art guided and influenced by the era and movement.

Exhibition Opening Party: September 14, 6-9pm

Celebrate opening weekend of this exhibit and Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era with live music, cash bar, appetizers, with many of the artists in attendance!

This exhibition is curated by independent curator and critic Carlo McCormick and FWMoA Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, Alton Kelley, Chuck Sperry, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Gary Grimshaw, H.R. Giger, Isaac Abrams, Leni Sinclair, Mark Mothersbaugh, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson

June 23, 2018 By squirt

Chuck Sperry in “Litmus Test” Exhibition at Fort Wayne Museum of Art in September

Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era

Fort Wayne Museum of Art

September 15 – December 9, 2018

The Psychedelic Era was, among many things, a cultural frontier for colors and imagery. Music, politics, and drugs ignited an unprecedented expansion of art revolving around these elements. College campuses around the country, now seen as the birthing grounds for much of the psychedelic era’s ideals, were hotbeds for bright young minds to organize politically and artistically. From Berkeley College to the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, young idealists organized and the art of the era came to fruition. This exhibition will be our bridge to that time, showcasing a variety of psychedelic era works on paper.

Highlighting this experience is the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.  The poster work and ephemera of Gary Grimshaw and the photography of Leni Sinclair will showcase the art that poured out of that time and place. Blotter sheets from Mark Mothersbaugh, H.R. Giger, S. Clay Wilson, Chuck Sperry, and more will represent the creative fuel for many of the artists of the time. Also featured will be the work of the poster artists of the time: Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse, Rick Griffin, and Alton Kelley. Lastly works by artists Alex and Allyson Grey and Isaac Abrams will display the fine art guided and influenced by the era and movement.

Exhibition Opening Party: September 14, 6-9pm

Celebrate opening weekend of this exhibit and Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era with live music, cash bar, appetizers, with many of the artists in attendance!

This exhibition is curated by independent curator and critic Carlo McCormick and FWMoA Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

Filed Under: Art Prints, Events, News Tagged With: Alex Grey, Allyson Grey, Alton Kelley, Chuck Sperry, Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Gary Grimshaw, H.R. Giger, Isaac Abrams, Leni Sinclair, Mark Mothersbaugh, Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson

October 15, 2016 By squirt

The Rock Poster Society • Festival of Posters 2016

chuck-sperry-portrait
Photo credit: Bless Hyperion

screen-shot-2016-10-14-at-6-04-06-pm

The first time Chuck Sperry saw a psychedelic rock poster he was 5 or 6 and had mustered up the nerve to climb the attic stairs into his big brother’s bedroom.

There, pinned to the wall, was a drawing of a fat prop plane with umbrellas. He studied the lettering, then sneaked back up a second time until he could finally make out the words, “Jefferson Airplane, an Ectodelic Trip, Civic Auditorium Dance, June 4, 9-1, $2.25.”

“I remember staring at that poster in the late 60’s while my brother Jody and I recorded The Who’s Tommy in its entirety on a reel-to-reel tape recorder,” said Sperry laughing.

airplane-poster

Sperry followed that poster to Haight-Ashbury, where he found love, an amazing apartment and the charmed life of a poster artist.

He timed it just right to have been selected by art director Arelene Owseichik to join Bill Graham Presents’ “New Fillmore Series” of posters in 1994. His career spanning 500+ handmade, limited edition, screen printed Rock Posters and art prints – not to mention 200+ art shows in over a dozen countries – has not slowed since then.

In fact, Sperry’s career is speeding up; He will have a solo exhibition in New York City at Spoke Art Gallery on November 19, 2016. There he will present his newest wood panels and archived classic rock posters and art prints. He will also present his newest book, “Helikon, The Muses of Chuck Sperry” devoted entirely to his screenprint on wood panels.

vivien-chuck-sperry

“Recently I had the great honor to make five posters – over the last year – for The Who. They gave me massive props by showing my posters on the huge stadium stage screen before and after their concerts. When I saw them in Oakland this year, I thought about my brother and me in 1969 in his room under that Jefferson Airplane poster.”

the-who-oakland-chuck-sperry

On Saturday, Oct. 22, Sperry’s art will proudly be on display at the Festival of Rock Posters in the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

The Festival, put on by the nonprofit all-volunteer Rock Poster Society, is a highly anticipated annual art event. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the invention of the psychedelic rock poster. To honor this important milestone, artists, dealers, and collectors are coming from around the country, to create one of the largest TRPS events to date.

“The psychedelic style stood out from everything else,” says Sperry, now 54, and still a resident of that same apartment in The Haight.

Sperry has lived in The Haight for 26 years, and has worked as an artist for all that time. He’s made shows from Buenos Aires to Paris, Athens to Japan. His art is in the permanent collections of many prominent museums as well as The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

He owns an art studio/gallery in West Oakland where he regularly hosts very well-attended art shows and open houses. Presently he is working on a series of four Jerry Garcia portraits for the Garcia family’s foundation, which collectors are avidly awaiting.

jerry-web

“Wes Wilson did a series of 10 or 12 posters that ignited all of these other artists to get started,” Sperry says. “Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley,Victor Moscoso, and Rick Griffin were breaking all the printing rules by putting colors like red and blue next to each other, which vibrated the eye. You had to be hip in order to even read the posters. It was really a revolutionary artistic statement.”

According to Ben Marks, vice president of the Rock Poster Society, the style for psychedelic rock posters can be traced to that most un-psychedelic of bands, the Association, singing “Windy” and “Cherish”. It was drawn by Wilson using flames for lettering. If you’ve taken a course in hippie hieroglyphics you can make out the words “July 22-23, Fillmore Auditorium.”’

SONY DSC

“San Francisco’s Psychedelic style completely changed graphic aesthetics around the world,” says Sperry. The 50th anniversary of the Human Be-In is Jan. 14, and that will launch a year of tributes to the Summer of Love. Posters from the Be-In, and other Summer of Love shows will be at the Hall of Flowers and so will three of the artists, Moscoso, Mouse and Wilson, signing posters. Also there, will be Emek and Gary Houston from Portland, Jim Pollock from Chicago, Mark Arminski from Detroit, and Sperry.

Admission fee will decrease as the day goes on. Get there at 10 a.m. and it is $20. At 11 a.m. it drops to $10 and after 3 p.m. it is free. The risk in waiting is that the good stuff may already be gone. The line is expected to form at dawn, with people in lawn chairs.

Last year, Sperry was able to find a mint-condition tour program from the Grateful Dead tour of Egypt, in 1978, for $100. The artist, Mouse, signed it for him, and Chuck was stoked.

“The collectors are so fervent that they want to get their hands on these limited edition posters first thing in the morning,” says Sperry. “We’re talking about a tradition that started in 1966, and there is still this great enthusiasm!”

Festival of Rock Posters: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22 at the Hall of Flowers, Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park. Admission: $5 for members. For non-members $20 at 10 a.m., $10 at 11 a.m., free after 3 p.m. trps.org

WIDESPREAD-PANIC-CHUCK-SPERRYChuck-Sperry-Dave-MatthewsMORGANA WEB

Col. Bruce Hampton & the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Port Chester & NYC - Crystal Skull Edition of 25Pearl Jam April 9, 2016 Miami, FL poster by Chuck SperryPETE-SPARKLE

Black Sabbath “The End” Tour at Madison Square Garden NYC rock poster by Chuck SperryThe Art of Musical Maintenance 12 event poster by Chuck Sperry - Black Satin Edition of 7

SPERRY-PANIC-WEBWIDESPREAD-PANIC-LAVA-SPERRY

WEB BEATLE BLOTTER - JOHNWEB BEATLE BLOTTER - PAUL

WEB BEATLE BLOTTER - GEORGEWEB BEATLE BLOTTER - RINGO FIXXED

 

dryad-web

Filed Under: News, Press & Reviews Tagged With: Arlene Owseichik, Bill Graham, EMEK, Festival of Rock Posters 2016, Gary Houston, Jim Pollock, Mark Arminski, SFGate, Spoke Art, Stanley Mouse, The Rock Poster Society, Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson

November 5, 2012 By squirt

Garbage at the Warfield 10/1 & Shpongle at the Warfield 10/5 – Hurricane Sandy Benefit Releases

Garbage at the Warfield, October 1, 2012

Firehouse-Goldenvoice No. 165

15 x 22.5

Edition of 125

3 colors on archival cream paper

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT – Thank You!

________________

A portion of my proceeds from this release have been donated to the American Red Cross.

Shpongle presents The Masquerade at the Warfield, October 5, 2012

Firehouse-Goldenvoice No. 166

16.75 x 22.5

Edition of 125

3 colors on archival cream paper

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT – Thank You!

________________

A portion of my proceeds from this release have been donated to the American Red Cross.

Shpongle / Garbage Uncut Variant

35 x 23

Edition of 20

3 colors on archival cream paper

Signed and Numbered

SOLD OUT – Thank You!

________________

A portion of my proceeds from this release have been donated to the American Red Cross.

________________

Here are the final two designs I worked on last month – while working on my presentation for Trimarchi, the largest design conference of it’s kind in the Spanish speaking world. Steeped in the amazing psychedelic poster art of Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Wes Wilson, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin – and having the original Mouse/Kelley 13th Floor Elevator poster framed and hanging on my drawing studio wall for twenty years – I made this as a very tongue-in-cheek parody of that poster. I liked that Gary Grimshaw (making a poster for the Grande Ballroom) and Mouse/Kelley (making a poster for the Avalon Ballroom) had coincidentally drawn from the same source photo in Life magazine. I felt it would be interesting to draw the syllogism into my own re-contextualization of the same source in the 21st Century. I altered the source image into a portrait of Shirley Manson, lead singer of Garbage. I invented a parody of the Family Dog logo with one of my masonic zombie shriners which says: “The Snot-nose Kid Pays Homage to Mouse • Kelley.”

Photo source: “Art of the Dead” soon to be published book by Phil Cushway

As an illustration of why this release demands a benefit to the American Red Cross and hurricane Sandy relief, here is a photo of Stanley Mouse and I calmly texting friends and family as we are being evacuated from our hotel in Manhattan which was directly under the infamous damaged construction crane many of you, no doubt, saw on CNN.

Filed Under: Rock Posters Tagged With: Alton Kelley, Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series, Garbage, Shpongle, Stanley Mouse, The Warfield

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  • Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris
  • Sperry in Popland 2025 at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
  • 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

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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…

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

Latest Blog Posts

  • Sperry Solo “Universal” Coming to Paris
  • Sperry in Popland 2025 at KochxBos Gallery, Amsterdam
  • 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

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