A 15 plate postcard set by Mark Ryden (Porterhouse Fine Art Editions)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-716-7
I’m once more straying a little from my accustomed comfort zone with this delightful and evocative little item that landed in my review tray the other day. Whilst not sequential art the fifteen enticing yet profoundly disturbing images that make up this gift-set of postcards are certainly full of technical craft and intense imagination; and moreover the chillingly subversive pictures tell stories the way no thousand words ever could… by boring straight into your brain and making themselves uncomfortably at home.
Mark Ryden comes from a family of artists and has made his name in the last decade as an illustrator, producing book covers for the likes of Stephen King (Desperation and The Regulators) and record covers for Ringo Starr, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Michael Jackson. His work, reminiscent in style to classic Salvador Dali falls into a category of modern art described as “Pop Surrealism”. He was educated at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, graduating in 1987 with a Batchelor’s Degree in Fine Art. And that’s where his first one man exhibition “The Meat Show” debuted in 1998.
Ryden came to prominence with regular features in “Lowbrow” art magazines such as Juxtapoz and has also exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Santa Ana. Recent shows have included the retrospective “Wondertoonel” and the quirky tour de force “The Tree Show” (paintings and sculptures to 2007-2008) from which the contents of this set are culled.
Like many contemporary artists Ryden works across many media, illustrating the guitar of Metallica front-man Kirk Hammett, designing the tattoo art for Aerosmith’s album “Pump” and designing for custom action-figure producer Michael Leavitt’s “the Art Army“. Ryden’s eye-popping creepy explorations of beauty, childhood and popular culture can be found in the book collections the Art of Mark Ryden: Anima Mundi (2001), Bunnies and Bees (2002), Wondertoonel Paintings (2004), Blood Show (2005), Fushigi Circus (2006) and, of course, The Tree Show (2009).
Darkly surreal, with sumptuously lush palettes and a subject matter consisting of little girls, teddy bears, animals and monsters against a gloriously “outdoors-y” backdrop, these paintings are simultaneously beautiful and disquieting; a must-have treat for adults who view the Abstract Concept of childhood with something less than saccharine nostalgia…
© 2008 Porterhouse Fine Art Editions, Denver, Co.