All Access: Exploring Humanism in the Art of Chuck Sperry

*Note: if you picked up an exhibition postcard, you’ll see the closing date for the exhibition says December 19. That was printed in error. The Chuck Sperry exhibition closes December 9.

The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is pleased to celebrate Chuck Sperry’s first museum solo exhibition. Sperry has been preeminent in the rock poster genre since the late 1990s and has largely defined the genre in each decade since with his distinctive style and masterful printing technique.

Sperry has drawn inspiration for this work from the classical Greco-Roman idea of the muses, and their metaphorical home on Mount Helikon — the source of inspiration for all things art and music. Naiads, nymphs and muses in their richly patterned floral settings make their way into Sperry’s work. Dripping with brightly colored flowers, decked in gold and silver textures, Sperry’s blue-silver muses sing a paean to the long tradition of humanism reactivated in the struggle for social progress, universal human rights, a more perfect democracy and the utopian ideals of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco where Sperry has made his home since 1989.

Symbolism, Secession, ukiyo-e, and psychedelia blend in Sperry’s flattened, post-modern figurative art: all potent ingredients Sperry strives self-consciously to re-evaluate for the 21st Century.

The exhibit will feature 2 large scale tapestries designed by Sperry, 25 screen prints on oak panel, original ink drawings, and ephemeral color progressives which illuminate Sperry’s unique printing process.

This exhibition is organized by the Fort Wayne Museum of Art and its Curator of Contemporary Art Josef Zimmerman.

Exhibition Opening Party: September 14, 6-9pm | Tickets Here*
Celebrate opening weekend of this exhibit and Litmus Test: Works on Paper from the Psychedelic Era with live music, cash bar, appetizers, and face time with the one and only Chuck Sperry!

*Pre-paid tickets are not required, but we encourage you to buy your tickets in advance to ensure a smooth and quick check-in for you and all party-goers. If you register through the site but your payment does not go through, we may contact you for payment in advance of the event. The online form closes at 2:30pm, September 14. After this time, you can only purchase tickets in person at the museum starting at 4pm.

**Chuck Sperry artwork will be for sale through a lottery only under the following regulations:

•  FWMoA Member discounts will NOT be applied to artwork in the Chuck Sperry or Litmus Test exhibitions.
• Lottery tickets will be dispensed on a first come, first served basis outside the FWMoA West entrance from 4-6pm September 14. Lottery participants must be 18 years old or older.
• The opening party will be from 6-9pm September 14. Anyone who participated in the lottery and who wishes to enter FWMoA to purchase artwork must pay the party price (here or at the door) regardless of whether you are staying for the party.
• Lottery announcements with time slots for the winners to purchase their work will be announced via television in the FWMoA lobby starting at 6:30pm with sales starting at 6:45pm.
• Each lottery winner will be given the chance to purchase ONE of each of the following: a new panel piece, an archival panel piece, a new poster, and a new signed copy of Chuck Sperry’s newest book.
• All sales are final.