Mark Ryden: Anima Animals
Past exhibition
-
-
Kasmin and Perrotin are delighted to announce a jointly organized exhibition of new works by American painter Mark Ryden (b. 1963, United States). Featuring approximately forty works from the artist’s latest series, Anima Animals, the exhibition will be on view at Perrotin’s Shanghai gallery from July 3, 2020. This also marks the artist’s first solo show in China.
-
-
Anima Animals presents a portrait gallery of enchanted characters that embody the artist’s meticulously-realized, signature blend of archetype, kitsch, and narrative mysticism. Resplendent with pinkcheeked, wide-eyed divine beings, the works are encased in ornate, handcarved wooden frames of the artist’s design that function as part of the artwork, extending the traditional limits of the picture plane. The characters’ otherworldly demeanors found within are inspired by the idiosyncratic and playfully proportioned faces of 1950s vintage plush animal toys. Whilst many of these creatures present a benevolent smile framed by soft tendrils of candy-colored fur, saccharine curls, roses, and silk bows, a darker tension lies just under the surface, hinting at the haunting resonance of the subconscious.
-
-
Ryden’s modern mythologies inseparably interweave twin senses of comfort and menace. “Most of my work engages with the relationship between the physical world and the spiritual world," he has said. His are scenes that exist in the ambiguous space between these two realms, in which nostalgia—and by extension memory, even death—are everpresent.
-
-
Takashi Murakami has said: “Mark Ryden, Yoshitomo Nara, and I, among others, belong to a generation of artists who have been facing in the same general direction. What I mean by the ‘same direction’ is that as children, we were baptized in subculture and that experience remains intensely imprinted on each of our beings. When we subsequently began painting in our adolescent years, we also started to study art history while simultaneously developing our painting technique. Once we had full command of both of these, we succeeded in combining historical painting methods with subculture. That, in a nutshell, is our generation.”
-
-
Ryden’s time-honored, ar tistic craftsmanship elevates heavily sentimentalized elements of American tradition and antiquity, collected as though for a cabinet of wonders. His labor-intensive canvases deftly rework centuries of art history, combining the grandeur of Spanish and Italian religious painting with the decorative richness of Old Master compositions and the lush textures of French Neoclassicism.
-
Works
-
About the Artist
Portrait by Christopher French. -
Explore
-
Alexis Ralaivao: Éloge de l’ombre (In Praise of Shadows)
May 15 – July 25, 2025 509 West 27th Street, New YorkFor Éloge de l’ombre (In Praise of Shadows), Ralaivao unveils a suite of new paintings rendered entirely in black and white. Working within the self-imposed parameters of a reduced palette, Ralaivao sharpens his attention to composition, light and shadow. In arresting portraits and still life tableaux, Ralaivao magnifies the most subtle of details at grand scale by strategically framing his subjects. Influenced by film noir, Ralaivao’s works absorb the viewer into a romanticized world of drama and suspense as if the viewer has arrived at a narrative in media res. -
Theodora Allen: Oak
May 7 – July 25, 2025 297 Tenth Avenue, New YorkAllen’s atmospheric oil paintings on linen depict natural phenomena and symbols chosen for their enduring presence in human history and culture, often drawing from mythology and medieval imagery. From hearts and infinity loops to rainbows and locusts, these subjects serve to underscore nature’s propensity for renewal following destruction. Branches of an oak tree, a powerful symbol of wisdom, strength and endurance, reappear. Through compositional devices, such as gates, windows, and architectural niches, Allen's illusionistic spaces create a dynamic interplay between inclusion and exclusion. Her scenes emerge as ruins burgeoning with life, offering glimpses into a realm where the natural world and the metaphysical entwine. -
Alma Allen on Park Avenue
May 2 – September 30, 2025
-
