The Fullerton Museum Center is welcoming visitors back to its newly renovated gallery space with the premiere of an exhibition featuring six decades of the kaleidoscopic artwork created by cultural icon John Van Hamersveld.
“Crazy World Ain’t It: The Art of John Van Hamersveld” displays Hamersveld’s wide-ranging body of work, including posters, drawings, paintings, album covers, digital compositions and photographs.
The exhibit’s title is named for a documentary about Van Hamersveld, which will play on a continuous loop as part of the exhibit.
While widely known for the movie poster he crafted for the 1960s surf documentary, “Endless Summer,” Hamersveld created the art for 300 album covers for artists including The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
Hamersveld’s wife, Alida Post, curated the exhibition.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for the 22 years I’ve known John, because I wanted to explain the process,” Post said. “I want everybody to see the process. Most people think John does everything on a computer, but everything starts with a drawing.”
Several versions of Hamersveld’s “Johnny Face,” a 1970s poster of an individual flashing a wide smile, oversized teeth and popping eyes, also make up the exhibit.
The poster was first released in 1970 and later used on a series of 224 billboards across Los Angeles and Orange County, making it a widely recognized symbol of the era.
Official posters created by Hamersveld for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles are also part of the exhibit.
Coinciding with the Hamersveld exhibit, an exhibit titled “A Man Named Charlie: Fender’s Unsung Hero,” opens in the Leo Fender Gallery within the museum on Saturday.
The exhibit features the creations of Charlie Davis, the master craftsman whose work helped define Fender’s sound.
Starting in 1957, Davis moved through every stage of guitar building, but was heralded specifically for his skill at winding pickups.
Trusted by icons including Dick Dale, Davis’s touch shaped surf rock and a generation of music.
For information on the Fullerton Museum Center, including details about exhibits, go to fullertonmuseum.com.