Mark Ryden will sign copies of his newest release “The Tree Show” (2009), a hardcover collection of recent works.

Art Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair
Pacific Design Center
(taking place on the 2nd floor of the Pacific Design Center, the blue building, at the ARTBOOK booth, H10)

Pacific Design Center
8687 Melrose Avenue
West Hollywood, California 90069

Saturday, January 30, 2010
from 1 – 3 pm

The Miami Art Fairs (Art Basel Miami + satellite fairs) can be a bit numbing after awhile — fair after fair, gallery after gallery.  So it’s helpful and refreshing to see what others find interesting or particularly noteworthy.  Annie Adjchavanich is in Miami and just posted up some of her picks on her Dailydujour blog including the lovely Mark Ryden piece above which was shown as at Art Basel Miami proper by Paul Kasmin and reportedly sold for 900k.

To instill a sense of levity in these somewhat dismal times, the people at Sloan Fine Art NYC decided to execute a “fun for all” atmosphere with their current exhibit. In “+2″, which runs from June 20th to July 18th, twenty four artists (who all have done group or solo shows at the gallery in the past) were invited to exhibit. Those artists were then told to invite two more artists who they owed favors to, wanted to give a break to, or simply just wanted to meet. The only stipulation: none of the work can be larger than 10″X10″!

A few of the artists confirmed include: Seonna Hong, Morgan Slade, Mark Ryden, Kristen Schiele, Austin McCormick, and Chris Berens. Artist’s reception with lemonade and cookies will be held on June 20th, between 4 to 6 pm.

Sloan Fine Art
128 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002

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In Numb and Callus. KMNDZ.

Hi-Fructose has really outdone themselves for this year’s annual show.  Overdose opening this Saturday, April 4th 2009 [8 - 11:30 PM] @ Copro Nason in Santa Monica offers a broad selection of lowbrow/pop surrealist artists.  Despite being an extremely large group show, the pieces are extremely strong examples of the artists’ work — not an easy curatorial feat by any means.    We’ve picked just a few of our favorites from the gallery’s web preview including KMNDZ’s amazing “In Numb and Callus” (above)  to showcase here but the entire show is impressive. We’re also really excited about the opportunity  to see one of Kris Kuksi’s beyond words sculptures close up.

Apparently, limited-quantities of the Hi-Fructose Collected Edition box sets will be available at the opening and several of the featured artists will be on-hand for a signing. Additionally, Hi-Fructose 11 featuring a cover story on Mark Ryden will debut at the show prior to its coming newstand release. And if that’s not enough (some people are hard to please…) –  Hi-Fructose will be giving away a free mystery poster, available only during the opening.   Anyway you slice it,  a must- see show.

Copro Nason
Bergamot Station
7525 Michigan Ave T5
Santa Monica, CA 90404
310.829.2156

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LA painter extraordinaire Mark Ryden opened The Snow Yak Show @ Tomio Koyama gallery in Kyoto, Japan this past Saturday.  For his first solo in nearly two years, Ryden created eight original paintings and several drawings centered around the show’s below zero theme.   Several art notables made the trip out for the opening including Long Gone John and  Tim Biskup.  Thanks to Luke Rook for the great pictures.

Tomio Koyama Gallery
1-3-2-7F Kiyosumi
Koto-ku, Tokyo 135-0024

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A showcase of pieces from Mark Ryden’s 2007 major solo exhibition at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, the Tree Show Book features over 130 color images including Mark’s paintings, drawings, studies, and sculptural works. This 128-page hard bound full-color edition also includes a wealth of Mark’s inspirational reference materials as well as an essay by Holly Meyers and artist’s statement.
Get a chance to touch Mr. Ryden at his signing this Saturday. It will most likely be crazy, so go get in line early.
The Tree Book: Signing
Saturday, January 31, 3–5 pm
MOCA Store, MOCA Grand Avenue
250 South Grand Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Had a chance to visit the art LA fair this weekend and catch up with a few gallery friends and meet some interesting galleries and artists that were new to me. Thats the great thing about art…there is a neverending stream of new work to view. You can really never see enough…whether good or bad…once you get the bug you have to keep looking.

Such was the case with artLA. 60 something galleries and hundreds of paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and even a fish tank. Good, bad, interesting and lots in between…

I have to say I have been really loving some of the light and neon installations. Fell in love with Tracy Emin’s neon work a while back, and keep seeing other similar work that I enjoy. I think I need to get me some.

Caught up with Michael Kohn gallery which gave us some insight into Mark Ryden’s upcoming show in Tokyo, and got to see some new work from one of my favorites Tim Hawkinson at ACE gallery.

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Evan Penny

It’s been about a week since Art Basel ‘08 in Miami came to a close.  Since this was my first trip to Basel, I didn’t know what to expect short of a steady diet of excellent art.  And how…  When most people speak of Basel they are talking about the entire dizzying array of satellite art fairs and gallery shows that have sprung up around the official Art Basel show which is held at the convention center in South Beach.

Having had a week to decompress and reflect upon aisle after aisle of art, we’ll start our focused coverage with Art Basel at the convention center.  After we quickly realized that bringing you all or even most of the show was an impossibility, we settled on focusing on art that caught our eye.  Where possible we have included artist credits – many pieces were not clearly marked. Basel and most of the surrounding art fairs challenge the viewer to make sense out of widely varying styles and genres from one booth to the next.

In terms of our personal highlights, Evan Penny’s amazingly and eerily life-like Murray, Variation #3 sculpture (above) drew large crowds and with good reason.  From the individual hairs to the true-to-life skin, the piece is impeccable.  Note also that it’s slightly distorted towards the back — very subtle effect.  In terms of paintings, Mark Ryden’s new large piece shown by Tomio Koyama gallery stood out partly because well it’s a Ryden and two because of the provocative style featuring bubbles emanating from the girls crotch.  Finally, on the lighter side of life  Mr.’s candy-colored photograph of a female fire team begged a second and third look.  Be sure to check out our photo gallery of sights of Art Basel including the pieces mentioned here, after the jump.

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Roq la Rue Gallery and lowbrow king Mark Ryden are releasing an edition of prints to support the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust – an organization which offers help for endangered elephants and rhinos in Africa.

The cost of making the prints has been donated by Roq La Rue Gallery and apparently EVERY penny goes to the fund. Good Karma for Kirsten Anderson – owner of Roq la Rue, and new contributor to the DailyD.

Details:

Mark Ryden, “The Bunny Cart”

giclee print on archival paper with deckled edges and hand signed by Mark Ryden,

numbered edition of 50* 7.5″ x 10.5″
comes with certificate of authenticity signed by Mark Ryden and Roq La Rue Gallery

For more info or to order contact RoqlaRue.

Speaking of Ryden – You can pick up a portrait of his and other artists via “Heroes and Villains” at Paper Tiger.