Visual Artist Sean Starr

“Perhaps the most interesting way to consider the exhibition, though, is as a type of thought exercise… the self-consciously almost-retro Sean Starr’s How Soon is Now?, 2012 and a second panel with a lyric from that song by The Smiths.”

Artforum Magazine April 2012

• January 21, 2006: “What You Think, You Become” University of Washington, Tacoma, Washington
• February 24 – March 18, 2006: “Lyrical Abstraction” Agora Gallery New York, New York
• March 18, 2006: “The Napa Series” Frank Family Vineyards Calistoga, California
• March 25, 2006: “The Napa Series” Dominari Vineyards Napa, California
• April 1, 2006: “The Napa Series” Casa Nuestra Vineyards St. Helena, California
• April 8, 2006: “The Napa Series” Rocca Family Vineyards Napa, California
• April 15, 2006: “The Napa Series” Peju Province Rutherford, California
• April 22, 2006: “The Napa Series” Zahtila Vineyards Calistoga, California
• April 29, 2006: “The Napa Series” V. Sattui Winery St. Helena, California
• May 6, 2006: “The Napa Series” Markham Vineyards St. Helena, California
• May 13, 2006: “The Napa Series” Pine Ridge Winery Napa, California
• May 20, 2006: “The Napa Series” Corison Winery St. Helena, California
• May 27, 2006: “The Napa Series” Grgich Hills Estate St. Helena, California
• January 12, 2012: “An American Language” Guerrero Gallery San Francisco, California
• April 20, 2013: “Sign Writers” Phsh Tank Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• October 25, 2013: “Matthew Hoffman’s You Are Beautiful” Gallerie F Gallery Chicago, Illinois
• December 6, 2014: “Sign Painters” Marcas Gallery Santa Ana, California
• September 18, 2015: “Love Letters from Limerick” Limerick School for Arts & Design’s FabLab Gallery Limerick, Ireland
• November 21, 2015: “Cedars Open Studio Tour” Full City Rooster Dallas, Texas
• July 30, 2016: “American Tattoo: As Ancient as Time, As Modern as Tomorrow” Museum of Street Culture/Full City Rooster Dallas, Texas
• August 19, 2017 “REFUELED: Art. Photography. Object.” Starr Gallery, Dallas, Texas
• September 22, 2017- January 14, 2018 “For Hire: Contemporary Sign Painting in America” Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

• November 2005: “Meet the Artist” and Studio Tour Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, Tacoma, Washington
• February 24, 2006: “Lyrical Abstraction” Exhibit Agora Gallery New York, New York
• November 9, 2012: “Lecture and Workshop” Texas Women’s University, Denton, Texas
• September 15, 2015: “Lecture and Workshop” Limerick School for Arts & Design, Limerick, Ireland
• May 24, 2016: “AIGA Fresh Meet Series” AIGA Dallas, Dallas, Texas
• August 5-7, 2016: “WMC7 Guest Speaker” Weapons of Mass Creation 7, Cleveland, Ohio
• September 22, 2017- January 14, 2018 “For Hire: Contemporary Sign Painting in America” Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Houston, Texas

“A Renowned American sign painter is to come to Limerick in September to work on a public artwork that draws on the music of The Cranberries.” ~Limerick Leader

In September 2015, Sean Starr was invited by the City of Limerick, Ireland to participate in the Elemental Arts Festival and to design and execute a large scale, original “ghost sign” project in association with the band The Cranberries which is on permanent display at the Limerick Institute of Technology. Starr also had work on display in Elemental Art’s & Culture Exhibition titled Love Letters from Limerick curated by Tom Collins, which opened on September 18, 2015 at the Limerick School for Arts & Design’s FabLab Gallery.

“Starr has created his own version of Abstract Expression, one that incorporates the immediacy of inspiration.” ~Agora Gallery, New York

Shortly after establishing the studio in Tacoma, Washington in 2005, Starr’s first exhibition was held at the University of Washington, Tacoma January 21, 2006 which included multiple items on display at several locations at the University and the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce. The exhibition was arranged by local photographer Chip Van Gilder with assistance from Tacoma artist Jeremy Silas.

On January 28, 2006 Starr relocated the studio to San Francisco’s Mission District.

The 2006 Tacoma exhibition was followed by multiple exhibitions in Napa Valley, California at 11 wineries and a New York exhibition at Manhattan’s Agora Gallery that opened on February 24, 2006 titled “Lyrical Abstraction” which featured 10 large scale pieces of Sean’s work.

On February 3, 2007 Starr’s solo exhibition titled “Morrissey Ruined My Life” at Workspace Limited Gallery opened with dozens of Starr’s pieces on display and a large scale piece Starr executed live during the opening to the music of Morrissey and The Smiths. San Francisco Magazine named it #4 in their list of “Top 10 Things To Do In February” of 2007.

“Obsessive” ~Entertainment Weekly

In late 2007, the book You, Me and Morrissey co-authored by Sean Starr and writer Colin Nasseri was released by Subculture Books and was selected as an Official Entrant for the Pulitzer Prize in Letters in 2008. On June 8, 2007 Starr and Nasseri were invited as guests to Morrissey’s Hollywood Bowl concert in Los Angeles, California where they presented a copy of the book to Morrissey who placed it on display during the show.

In late 2008, Subculture Books released Starr’s second book titled The Artist’s Tao and teamed him up with Gogol Bordello frontman Eugene Hutz to create the cover artwork for the release of the classic Taras Bulba by Nikolai Gogol.

“A lovely paean to a vanishing art… Ms. Levine and Mr. Macon have hopscotched the country, interviewing many of the best remaining old-school sign painters and printing their best work… This book, with an introduction by the artist Ed Ruscha, is a funky and necessary work of preservation.” ~New York Times

Sean Starr was one of the featured artists in the book and film Sign Painters by Faythe Levine and Sam Macon with a forward by artist Ed Ruscha. The book was released by Princeton Architectural Press in October of 2012.

The film of the same name had its debut screening on March 30, 2013 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, for which Starr created a vintage style, painted cloth banner to promote the film that was on display.

The film was released on DVD in January 2015 by Bond/360 films.

In January of 2015 Starr launched the show Coffee With a Sign Painter which is a podcast that consists of interviews with other sign painters and some of the customers Starr comes across while operating his studio. The podcast has been listed in the Top 10 in iTunes several times during 2015, with over 100,000 listeners in over 100 countries.  In April 2016 Irish sign painter Tom Collins joined as co-host. Sean and Tom performed the show from their respective studios in Denton, Texas and Limerick, Ireland. Some of the notable guests on the show are the members of the Irish band The Cranberries, The Toadies’ Clark Vogeler, film director Sam Macon and Los Angeles Graphic Designer Mathew Foster.

Currently in Post-Production. Due for worldwide release late 2021.

A documentary featuring artisans in Nepal such as Thangka painters, singing bowl manufacturers, ceramicists, paper makers, basket weavers and sign painters, and Sean Starr executing a large-scale mural in the Himalayan mountains.

More information: https://www.exploredinary.com/artislovefilmnepal

Sean Starr’s work graces the cover of the band The Toadies album Heretics which was released on September 18, 2015. The design was also incorporated into several pieces of apparel including t-shirts and belt buckles. The piece was commissioned by the band for the front cover art and executed on glass and features verre eglomise reverse glass gilding.

In July of 2015 Starr was commissioned by Indian Motorcycles to design and execute the paintwork on a 2015 Indian Scout motorcycle to pay tribute to Indian’s history in hillclimb motorcycle racing. The bike was built by Indianmotorcycles.net and made its debut at the 75th Anniversary Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 3, 2015 with an attendance that exceeded 1,000,000.

Sean Starr was commissioned in late 2018 to recreate the graphics on the legendary 1954 Ferrari raced by Alfonso de Portago. This iconic piece of racing history is valued at $300m. The car won the Enzo Ferrari Award in the 2019 Pebble Beach Concours as well as Best in Class and several other awards and graced the cover of Cavallino Magazine.

“Spoiler Alert: Our May Cover is a Work of Art — Literally“ ~Fort Worth Magazine

Fort Worth Magazine commissioned Sean Starr to create the cover design for their May 2019 issue. The design was executed with gold leaf on glass.

Sean Starr was commissioned by the Andrews Family of Fort Worth to create dozens of large scale art installations at the Paul & Chris Andrews Car Museum in Fort Worth.

In early 2021 Amie Sikes of the HGTV show Junk Gypsies commissioned Sean Starr to create a one of art piece out of their classic Volkswagen Beetle. Sean’s inspiration drew from the delivery trucks of India and Nepal, John Lennon’s Rolls Royce and a variety of classic Texas motifs. The vehicle was unveiled on March 2, 2021 at the Junk Gypsy Company in Round Top, Texas.