Chris Ryniak

Monsters & Misfits III

A Circus Posterus Exhibit at Kusakabe Folk Museum

Circus Posterus is delighted to announce Monsters & Misfits III, an exhibit of new work presented in collaboration with Tomenosuke-Syoten. Monsters and Misfits III will be on display at the Kusakabe Folk Museum September 13th to 26th in Takayama, Japan.

Monsters and Misfits III will feature returning artists Brandt Peters, Kathie Olivas, Amanda Louise Spayd, Chris Ryniak and Doktor A, with Andrew Bell, Carisa Swenson, Ragnar and Stan Manoukian as new additions to the roster.

This museum-quality exhibit will bring you on a midnight parade through a strange and wonderful world of ghosts, spirits, monsters. This year’s group of Circus Posterus artists and friends present a hand-made circus of beady eyed critters, old dolls, odd children, and other oddities that promise to leave you awash in starry-eyed wonder.

Brandt Peters, Amanda Louise Spayd, Chris Ryniak, Doktor A and Andrew Bell will be attending the opening reception on September 13th.

Press images and additional artist information are available upon request from ourPress Manager.

The exhibit will run September 13th to 26th at the Kusakabe Folk Museum in Takayama, Japan, with an opening reception on September 13th.

Andrew Bell

About the Artists:

Brandt Peters is an internationally recognized artist, illustrator, character and toy designer. His work hearkens back to the earliest days of comics and animation, with a seeming simplicity that hides layers of intricate backstory. His unerring sense of composition, combined with a strong narrative thread that has consistently woven through all his work for the past decade, has made him a favorite of art and toy collectors the world over.

Kathie Olivas is an internationally exhibited multi-media artist from New Mexico. Through her current body of work she explores society’s insatiable desire to assign ‘cuteness’ and our discomfort with the unknown. A dark blend of early American portraiture set in post apocalyptic times, Kathie’s paintings and custom toys are a satirical look at how fear affects our sense of reality.

Amanda Louise Spayd is a maker of the highest order. An accomplished artist, sculptor, musician, soap maker, and student of perfumery, Amanda spends a lot of time in the woods, watching birds, collecting feathers, dead insects, bones, and other artifacts. She can often be found poking through antique stores looking for beat-up treasures for inspiration, which she finds in historical fashion and textiles, the excess and ridiculousness of high-societies past, natural materials and their inevitable decay, the raw and instinctual behaviors of animals, and in artists such as Jan Svankmajer, Odd Nerdrum, Joseph Cornell, and Hieronymous Bosch, among others.

Chris Ryniak

Doktor A is one the most well-known steampunk character artists in the world, and his work has set the industry standard for mechanical gentleman. His characters have been produced by multiple companies including Arts Unknown, DYZ Plastic, and Kidrobot.Chris Ryniak was born as a baby in 1976 in the suburbs of Detroit. He spent his childhood basking in the warm glow of Saturday morning cartoons and flipping over rocks in search of insects, reptiles and ghosts. A graduate and former instructor of the Ringling School of Art and Design, he is now a painter and sculptor of all manner of critters. Chris’ work has been exhibited in galleries throughout the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. His paintings have also been published in numerous books and periodicals in multiple countries. Chris resides in Ohio with his two children, and a collection of skulls that rivals many museums.

Andrew Bell’s work spans a wide spectrum of mediums from illustrations and paintings to toys and sculptures. Much of his work is brought together by a sense of humor that often belies a more serious and sombre message.   His work has been featured in solo and group gallery shows from LA to Paris and has been covered by publications such as The New York Times and Wired.

Doktor A

Carisa Swenson’s passion for creating curious creatures springs from many sources—a love of mythological tales and Ray Harryhausen’s creations when she was a child, an appreciative eye for Henson Workshop in her teens, to the weird and wonderful films of Jan Svankmajer and The Brothers Quay in her twenties. When Carisa studied with world-renowned doll artist Wendy Froud, the final die was cast: posable dolls would forever own her soul and trouble her nights, stirring her with a fervor that could only be quelled by stitching and sculpting her dreams into reality. Since 2006, Carisa’s work has been featured in several publications, including Spectrum 17 and 19, and exhibits her dolls throughout the United States as well as internationally.

Ragnar is an acclaimed artist and designer, inspired by all the things he loves; film noir, classic cartoons, mid century design and punk rock. After extended stays in Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and San Francisco he landed in Los Angeles to attend Art Center College Of Design. For the better part of a decade, creative projects have included working as character designer and art director for virtually every studio in town including- Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Sony, MTV and Warner Bros.

His punk rock ethos would eventually drive him back to the do-it-yourself world where he’s quickly garnered a large and growing following of fervent fans and collectors.

Stan Manoukian is an internationally recognized artist/illustrator, toy designer, seasoned comic book artist, development and story designer for film and commercials, who has been creating monsters and building fans for years in both Europe and the US. Impassioned by old books, dictionaries, old engraved plates and paintings, Manoukian is inspired to present his creatures within the manners and styling of old encyclopedias – indexing, classifying and properly documenting them for future generations.