Mark Ryden Yakalina Secrets: New Shows from the Godfather of Pop Surrealism

Mark Ryden’s Yakalina Secrets is the wondrous second installment in the artist’s incredible gallery of creatures.

In his Pacific Northwest studio during the isolation of COVID-19, Mark Ryden began a series of his iconic half-animal, half-plush creatures that further explored his reverence for these beings, who are guides through a landscape of the unknown. The figures in these paintings are neither human nor animal, they are spiritual entities that create a bridge between the human and animal worlds in which so much disharmony exists.

This book features all of the original portraits of Ryden’s mysterious and mythical creatures. The resulting gallery of enchanted characters embodies the artist’s meticulously realized signature blend of archetype, kitsch, and narrative mysticism.

Mark Ryden’sYakalina Secrets features works from two of the artist’s exhibitions, organized in collaboration with Emmanuel Perrotin and Kasmin Gallery: Animal Secrets in Paris and Yakalina 9 in Tokyo.

Foreword by Takashi Murakami

About the Author:

Blending pop culture themes with techniques reminiscent of the old masters, Mark Ryden has created a singular style that blurs the traditional boundaries between high and low art. His work first garnered attention in the 1990s when he ushered in a new genre of painting, “pop surrealism,” dragging a host of followers in his wake. Ryden has trumped the initial surrealist strategies by choosing topics loaded with cultural connotation.