Fans of Pop Surrealism were no doubt tickled pink to hear of their messiah, painter Mark Ryden, making an appearance in Tokyo for the opening of "The Snow Yak Show" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. The solo exhibition features eight new works from the masterful painter, each exquisitely detailed in his characteristic style that is reminiscent of illustrations in classic children's books such as Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen."
Large-eyed snow yaks, woolly mammoths and a strange female snow creature that came to Ryden "in a vivid dream" take up most of the canvases, with simple backgrounds executed in icy tones. The paintings are minimalist and captivating, as well as being geeky in their meticulousness. For Ryden, who finishes paintings with brush strokes executed under a magnifying glass, doing one can take up to a year.
Ryden's following is cultish. He has groupies who call themselves Rydenites, and, at a Los Angeles exhibition at the prestigious Michael Kohn gallery, thousands of people showed up for a six-hour reception. Demand for his work has led to astronomical price tags and a fan list splattered with the names of A-listers, including Ringo Starr, Bridget Fonda and Robert De Niro, and famous kooks such as Michael Jackson.