About Me
The Wikipedia deffinition of me.
Mark is the son of Barbara and Keith Ryden, born in Medford, Oregon but was raised in Southern California, in cities like Anaheim, the home of Disneyland. He has two sisters and two brothers, one a fellow artist named Keyth, (the spelling from Keith was changed in 1969, for reasons relating to numerology and to distinguish himself from his father's first name) who professionally goes by the name KRK Ryden.
Ryden studied Illustration and graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, in 1987. His solo debut show was in Pasadena, California in 1998. He currently lives in Eagle Rock, California and has a studio on top of the famous Castle Green Hotel in Pasadena that he shares with his partner, artist Marion Peck. He is divorced and has two children Rosie and Jasper.
Ryden's work combines a hyper-cute cartoon-like sensibility - much like the doe-eyed Margaret Keane creatures of the 1960s - with a beautifully-detailed fullness and a creepy combination of numerology, little girls, Catholic and Buddhist symbolism, and carnivalesque Americana. His work ranges from large highly-polished oil paintings to small black-and-white works on paper. Like modern illustrators Sir John Tenniel and Edward Gorey, Ryden is influenced by the fantastic art of Alice in Wonderland and early Renaissance landscapes.
His work has gained greater prominence within the public domain thanks to so-called lowbrow art publications such as Juxtapoz in which his work features regularly. In fact Ryden has collaborated with other lowbrow artists such as Gary Baseman and Tim Biskup, in addition to composers Stan Ridgway (Wall of Voodoo) and Pietra Wexstun, ( the CD soundtrack to "Blood - Miniature Paintings of Sorrow and Fear")
Ryden has designed album covers for a very eclectic list of musicians, including Scarling., Ringo Starr, Oingo Boingo, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Butthole Surfers, Jack Off Jill, and Michael Jackson. His paintings are treasured by collectors all around the world. His celebrity clients include Stephen King, Alton Brown, Leonardo DiCaprio, Danny Elfman, Chris Carter, Bridget Fonda, Jessicka and famous anti-mogul Long Gone John.
Over the past decade, the marriage of accessibility, craftsmanship and technique with social relevance, emotional resonance and cultural reference has catapulted Ryden beyond his roots and to the attention of museums, critics and serious collectors. Ryden’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including a recent museum retrospective “Wondertoonel†at the Frye Museum of Art in Seattle and Pasadena Museum of California Art.
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