Brooklyn native Garrol Gayden (b. 1960) has been an artist at LAND Studio and Gallery since 2005. Gayden’s work focuses on densely saturated drawings based on New York City’s seaside amusement park, Coney Island. He first began drawing when he was five years old – fixated by the television, he picked up a notepad and pencil and outlined Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo and other favorite characters. Layering over the figures, he wrote down the letters and words he saw on the screen; from that day forward, he continued to draw, filling notebook after notebook. The use of text interwoven with figurative drawing remains his signature technique to this day.

When Gayden was seven years old, he visited Coney Island for the first time. A ride on the park’s Spook-a-Rama left a particularly lasting impression on him. Since first attending LAND, Gayden has remained preoccupied with this trip. Each day he sets up his desk with photographs of the old ride and plays episodes of The Laurel and Hardy Show. As he muses on what he sees, his phrases become incorporated into his compositions. Over time, colorful cross-hatchings and layers of text slowly abstract large portions of his drawings, partially swallowing the landscape and characters.