Mark Ryden was born January 30th 1963 in Medford Oregon. He attended The Art Center College of Pasadena and graduated With a BFA in 1987. Ryden is best known as the Grandfather of the “Pop Surrealism Movement”. “Pop Surrealism” is also known as Lowbrow art and was started in Southern California in the 1970’s. This art is common among punk music, the hot-rod community and underground comix. It has a sense of humor that is unique to the style, from gleeful or impish to downright sarcastic. This style matches Ryden’s to a tee. Ryden uses Mythology, Fairytale animals and characters, pop icons and even historical figures to create macabre motifs. He can take a disembodied president head or a pool of blood sounding a child and pair it with a beautiful background to create a mixture of the dark with a calming effect. He starts his artwork with a drawing and finishes them in mostly oil paint.
In his early years starting around 1988, Ryden worked on artwork for album and book covers. Some of his know album artwork includes Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, Aerosmith’s Love in an Elevator and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ One Hot Minute.
He also designed two covers, Desperation and The Regulators for Stephen King.
Ryden Continued as a commercial artist till 1994 when a former member of the Zap Comix Collective Robert Williams took his artwork and placed it on the front cover of Juxtapoz magazine.
A few years later in 1998, Ryden’s first exhibit “The Meat Show” opened in Mendenhall Gallery, Pasadena, California. “The Meat Show” work consisted mainly of children and animals, however one work features President Lincoln and a baby in the sky.
The next exhibit was “Bunnies and Bees”. This ran from 2000-2001 and was in galleries in New York, New York, Melbourne, Australia and Santa Ana, California. “Bunnies and Bees” featured once again President Lincoln, children and you guessed it rabbits and bees.
In 2003 “Blood” was exhibited in the Earl McGrath Gallery, Los Angeles, California & New York, New York. “Blood” featured little children with lots of bloodiness. This work has a uniqueness all of its own, each one is only a few inches long and wide. They have also been made into a book that you can get on Amazon or eBay.
Next was the exhibit “Wondertoonel” displayed at the Frye Museum, Seattle, Washington and Pasadena Museum of California Art in 2004 and 2005. “Wondertoonel” was just a collaboration of Ryden’s work to date. Following this was “The Tree Show” located in the Michael Kohn Gallery of California in 2007. These pieces of work featured trees, wood and babies and children with and made from wood. Some where even drawn then painted on pieces of tree stumps and sold to raise money for the Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy.
Next up was the 2009 Tomio Koyama Gallery in Tokyo, Japan. This was “The Snow Yak Show” and was very different from his earlier works. These pieces did not feature any macabre motifs, but instead featured a serene motif with hints to solitude and peacefulness.
In 2010 Ryden opened “The Gay 90’s: Old Tyme Art Show” at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, New York. This series features images that represent the 1890’s and mixes it with the nostalgia of the current culture.
The exhibit “The Gay 90’s: West” is his most current work and was to open at the Michael Kohn Gallery on November 9th 2013, but there have been some complications on the behalf of the gallery and this has been postponed until an unknown date. Not much is yet know of the pieces to be shown.
Mark Ryden currently lives and works out of Eagle Rock California located just outside of Pasadena. He has two children, Rosie and Jasper, and is married to fellow artist Marion Peck. They share a studio space together.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Ryden
http://www.paulkasmingallery.com/artists/mark-ryden/2
https://www.facebook.com/Mr.Ryden
http://instagram.com/markryden#
http://www.youtube.com/user/rydenart