Mark Ryden

Los Angeles artist Mark Ryden combines the arcane with pop-cultural imagery, as ground from which to make his carefully executed leaps into fantasy. The Tree Show includes depictions of oak trees consuming children, floating tree stumps with "seeing" eyes, imaginary wood nymphs and mythological characters who personify Nature herself. This special edition of Mark Ryden's bestselling The Tree Show features works from the artist's major solo exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. The book included in this boxed edition includes over 130 color images of paintings, drawings, studies and sculptural works as well as a wealth of Mark's inspirational reference materials. Each copy of this special edition is signed and numbered and comes in a handmade clamshell box covered with a fine Japanese silk. The edition is also packed with an array of "Vintage Souvenirs" including a miniature postcard set, commemorative pin, pennant, bookmark and pencil.

Absorbing Roman poet Ovid's tales of transformation in Metamorphoses and adding his own dash of art-historical figuration and contemporary pop culture, Mark Ryden broaches new terrain with The Tree Show. "Arcadian Gothic" might hint at the nature of this new work, and fans of Ryden will find familiar preoccupations in these new paintings, drawings and sculptures--made since his first solo show in 1998--transposed to new pastures. Never reluctant to freight his work with layers of reference that range from Renaissance landscape and Neoclassical portrait painting to occultism and literature, in his latest works Ryden combines the arcane with pop-cultural images as ground from which to make his carefully executed leaps into fantasy. Ryden's series includes depictions of oak trees consuming children, floating tree stumps with "seeing" eyes, imaginary wood nymphs and mythological characters who personify Nature herself. Ryden paints his characters with a masterful, porcelain glow reminiscent of Ingres and renders his trees with a care that evokes Audubon's botanical illustration. Several of his paintings are presented in elaborately carved frames that project their narratives beyond the canvas. The Tree Show offers reproductions of these paintings and sculptures alongside the fruits of Ryden's research on the tree as myth--drawing from the Buddha's Bodhi Tree to Adam and Eve, the Sephiroth of the Kabbalah and matters of ecological science. As such, this volume constitutes an enticing dossier on Ryden's encyclopedic exploration of the subject and reproduces in its entirety this series centered around the arboreal world.
Mark Ryden was born in Medford, Oregon, and received a BFA in 1987 from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

This super-collectible and beautifully produced portfolio of 14 prints--featuring reproductions of paintings, details and studies from Ryden's 2002 Bunnies and Bees show--comes housed in a Japanese silk-covered box, alongside a numbered certificate. Each 8 x 10 inch lithograph is printed on card stock with an embossed border. Limited stock available.