Gary Baseman
Gary Baseman never formally studied art, but instead graduated from UCLA with a degree in communications.
He describes himself as a Pervasive artist, which to him means “participating in any medium as long as one can stay true to one’s message and aesthetics”.
His career as a commercial illustrator saw his work appearing in illustrious magazines like Time, the New Yorker and Rolling Stone. He is the creator and executive producer of Disney’s Teacher’s Pet, which won three Emmys and a BAFTA and resulted in a feature length animated film, and he was responsible for creating the visual identity for Cranium, a successful, independent board game.
With his fine art exhibited in galleries all over the world, Baseman began his designer toy career during his first trip to Japan for a joint exhibition with fellow artists Mark Ryden and Tim Biskup. While in Tokyo he was invited by Sony Creative to contribute to their Vanimal Series and he has been designing and producing different figures ever since.
Their tremendous success and the limited numbers in which they were produced, means that his toys are now highly collectible pieces of art.
