Gary Baseman

About

Gary Baseman (born September 27, 1960) is an American interdisciplinary artist, illustrator, animator, and designer based in Los Angeles, known for his work in lowbrow art, pop surrealism, and what he terms 'pervasive art.' Raised in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles as the fourth child of Ukrainian Holocaust survivors—his mother worked at Canter’s Deli and his father was an electrician—Baseman drew early inspiration from Warner Bros. cartoons, MAD Magazine, and Disneyland. He graduated magna cum laude from UCLA with a degree in communications, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, before moving to New York in 1986 to pursue commercial illustration for clients like The New Yorker, TIME, Rolling Stone, Nike, and others until 1996. Transitioning to fine art in the late 1990s, he designed the visual identity for the board game CRANIUM and created the Emmy- and BAFTA-winning ABC/Disney series Teacher’s Pet, while exhibiting paintings and installations worldwide.

Pop surrealism and pervasive art, featuring stylized characters with huge eyes in eerie, bittersweet scenes exploring love, loss, and heritage