Mark Ryden
Mark Ryden (born January 20, 1963) is an American painter. Ryden is one of the most well known artists of the Pop Surrealist movement, an underground, pop-culture-infused art scene with its origins in 1970s Southern California.[1] He was dubbed "the god-father of pop surrealism" by Interview Magazine.[2] Ryden's aesthetic is developed from subtle amalgams of many sources: from Ingres, David and other French classicists to Little Golden Books.[3] Ryden also draws his inspiration from anything that will evoke mystery; old toys, anatomical models, stuffed animals, skeletons and religious ephemera found in flea markets.[4] Ryden’s pictures hint at the psychic stuff that pullulates beneath the sentimental, nostalgic and naïve surface of modern kitsch.[4]