“The Roots” Firehouse Poster Show

Moonalice poster artists Chuck Sperry, Chris Shaw, and Ron Donovan have been busy creating new paintings, installations, and limited silkscreen editions for Mind Spring, the newest exhibit at Varnish Fine Art in San Francisco.

In the piece Mind Spring, Sperry creates an icon of the Worldwide Occupy Movement and it’s antecedent in the Arab Spring. The figure wreathed in blooming spring flowers is a representation of the surprising enlightened humanism, the opening mind, the broadened socio-political possibilities which has swept the world in 2011.

Lending rock and alternative music a form of visual expression in sync with their urban environments, Chuck Sperry, Chris Shaw, and Ron Donovan embrace, alter, re-assign meaning and re-contextualize images until they become the medium-the subject emerging, used purposely–irreverently or reverently–to transform ephemeral events and experiences into a lexicon of shared cultural visual memory.

“Donovan, Shaw and Sperry have made their living creating expressive contemporary prints and posters for both the collector and the general public whose capacity for images is not just at its maximum, but teetering on overload. Dedication to their craft has rewarded them with a mastery of color theory, composition and print design that creates a language that can be seen, perhaps almost heard, amidst a visually competitive, urban environment. Never known for following the consensus of any art establishment, these three have a strict loyalty to their craft, and have become leading innovators of the rock poster art form. Their suspicion and disdain for mainstream American politics often characterizes their approach to making art. With a sincere dedication to a broad public audience, they reflect a social consciousness and draw much from the immediate urban environment.” – Renee de Cossio, curator SFMOMA

Many were in attendance at the Artist Reception, including Moonalice artists Carolyn Ferris, John Seabury, and Alexandra Fischer who took some wonderful photographs pictured below.

Chuck Sperry and Chris Shaw talk about their art for Mind Spring in the above audio clip. The complete catalog is available to view online at VarnishFineArt.com. If you are San Francisco, the exhibit continues until February 18, 2012.