Gary Baseman

Baseman’s multifaceted career includes illustration for clients including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal and the bestselling board game Cranium; as well as animation for which he created the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning series and feature film “Teacher’s Pet” for ABC/Disney. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on graphic and multidisciplinary arts and visual communications. Recent projects include a collaboration with COACH; a documentary “Mythical Creatures” about his family heritage; a traveling retrospective that featured hundreds of his paintings, photographs, videos, and toy and costume designs.

In Summer 2015, Baseman celebrated Toby's 10th year as a formal artwork, blurring the lines of fine art and toy culture. HAPPY TOBY TO YOU! at Hong Kong Times Square showcased works from the first Toby art exhibition, photographs, and videos of Toby's adventurous world travels, and a birthday party sculptural installation of Toby and other Baseman characters. The exhibition was housed in another experiential environment conceptualized by Baseman and co-designed by Hjalti Karlsson of New York-based design firm karlssonwilker.

In 2015, Baseman collaborated with Coach's Creative Director, Stuart Vevers, for the Baseman x COACH 2015 Spring Collection. The collection introduced an original series of Baseman characters (Buster Le Fauve, Emmanuel Hare Ray, Kiki, Buddy Boy, Butch), capturing the attitude of New York City and developed with the Coach girl in mind. In Summer 2015, Coach released the Baseman x Coach Wild Beast collection, featuring handbags, apparel, and accessories with Baseman's reimagined animal print.

In February 2015, Baseman created "The Secret Order of the Camellias," a site-specific installation and performative space at the Serpentine Gallery in London that celebrated the Baseman x Coach 2015 Spring collection. Showcasing the wild beast characters that protect secrets and represent loyalty and friendship, guests participated in a special rite of passage into the Secret Order by offering their deepest darkest dreams at the Shrine of Buster Le Fauve. Inspiring wonder and passion for life, Gary Baseman initiated an adventurous few who faced their fears and desires.

HAPPY TOBY TO YOU! Hong Kong Times Square, Hong Kong, China, 2015

Baseman and director David Charles launched a Kickstarter campaign in July 2014 to fund one of Baseman's personally meaningful creative projects, a film documentary called "Mythical Creatures".

The Door is Always Open, Shanghai chi K11 Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2014

The Door is Always Open, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, Taiwan, 2014

Baseman had his first major art museum retrospective, Gary Baseman: The Door is Always Open, in 2013 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California. The exhibition presented more than 300 artworks (including paintings, photographs, toys, sketchbooks, and videos) in an experiential home environment in which guests were invited to sit on a sofa or at the dining room table and explore, participate and visit. The Door is Always Open has since traveled to MOCA Taipei, Taiwan (Summer 2014) and to Shanghai chi K11 Art Museum (Winter 2015).

In July 2013, Toby's Secret Society came alive in "Secrets and Truths," a spectacular art performance created by Gary Baseman with choreography by Sarah Elgart, costumes by Swinda Reichelt, and music by LA- and Iceland-based Cassette Recordings Collective – arrangement by Scott Hackwith. Created in conjunction with Baseman's The Door is Always Open exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center, the performance featured Veritas, the Goddess of Dreams, the Princess of Secrets, the Sacred Magi, and the WildGirls performing a special ritual that unveiled "Secrets and Truth."

Mythical Homeland, Shulamit Gallery, Venice, CA, 2013

The Door is Always Open, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, CA, 2013

The film began in 2012 when Baseman first traveled to Eastern Europe on a Fulbright Fellowship, detouring to his parents' hometowns which had not been visited by any family member in over 60 years. Mythical Creatures aims to connect the stories of the Holocaust to an entirely new generation through Baseman's parents' dark experiences during World War II. The film combines live action documentary elements, along with extensive animated sequences, and other storytelling techniques. Baseman says, "It's really about taking all of the different narratives from the myths I've been told and mixing them with my characters to try and find my truth," he says. "We're not doing it in a straightforward historical way. It's really an exploration of my psyche."

Vicious, Antonio Colombo Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy, 2012

Walking through Walls, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY, 2011

In June 2010, Baseman presented "Giggle and Pop!" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Live action costumed ChouChous played in the La Brea Tar Pits along with performers dressed as Baseman's WildGirls, who were renamed "Tar Pit Girls" for the occasion. The characters performed a dance choreographed by Sarah Elgart and the audience joined in with singer-songwriter Carina Round, who performed a song she composed for the event.

Baseman added performance art to his oeuvre in 2009 with "La Noche de la Fusion," a mythical holiday festival celebrating the bittersweetness of existence by fusing cultures and blurring the lines of reality. Shown in 2009 at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, the event featured games, live music, dancers, and live models of Baseman's characters such as Toby, ChouChou, Hotchachacha, Skeleton Girl, Hickey Bat Girl, Bubble Girl, and Butterfly Girl.

La Noche de la Fusión, Corey Helford Gallery, Culver City, CA, 2009

Sacrificing of the Cake, Urbanix, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2009

Knowledge Comes From Gas Release, Iguapop Gallery, Barcelona, Spain, 2008

Hide and Seek in the Forest of ChouChou, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA, 2007

I Melt in your Presence, Modernism, San Francisco, CA, 2007

Manifestations of Desire, OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN, 2006

In 2005, Toby first appeared in drawings, paintings, and plush toys in the exhibition For the Love of Toby at Billy Shire Fine Arts in Culver City, California, marking the official beginning of Toby as a bridge between character development, toy culture, and fine art. Debuted at a crucial moment when popular culture and lifestyle strongly influenced art, Toby represents an important aspect of 21st century art: art everywhere, in multiple media and platforms.

Bedtime for Toby, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA, 2005

A Moment Ago, Everything was Beautiful Installation, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena, CA, 2005

The Garden of Unearthly Delights, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, NY, 2005

For the Love of Toby, Billy Shire Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA, 2005

Happy Idiot and Other Paintings about Unattainable Beauty, Earl McGrath Gallery, New York, NY, 2004

Baseman won the Outstanding Individual in Animation Emmy for Production Design in 2003. The show also won 2 Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program 2001 and 2002; Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program: Nathan Lane in 2001; and a BAFTA Emmy for Best International Children's Program in 2001.

Open Wounds and Other Paintings about Vulnerability, OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, 2003

I am Your Piñata and Other Paintings about Love and Sacrifice, La Luz de Jesus, Los Angeles, CA, 2002

In 1999, Baseman exhibited "Dumb Luck and Other Paintings About Lack of Control" at the Mendenhall Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition established Baseman's transition from illustration to fine art, during a time when many of his artist-friends, like Mark Ryden, the Clayton Brothers, and Eric White made similar moves.

Dumb Luck and Other Paintings About Lack of Control, Mendenhall Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, 1999

In 1998, Baseman created the Disney animated series Teacher's Pet, about a dog who dresses as a boy because he wants to go to school. Baseman claims the character Spot was based on his dog at the time, Hubcaps. The series aired on ABC from 2000–2002, and the feature film of the same name came out in 2004.

From 1986-1996, Baseman worked as an illustrator in New York. He established himself during this period as an in-demand artist with a unique visual sense and the ability to generate sharp, witty messages. He earned several awards from American Illustration, Art Directors Club, and Communication Arts. Baseman refers to his illustration work, and to his general process, as message-making.

Gary Baseman (born September 27, 1960) is an American Interdisciplinary artist who investigates history, heritage, and the human condition (especially love, longing, and loss). Through unique iconography and fantastical visual narratives that celebrate “the beauty of the bittersweetness of life,” his work brings together the worlds of popular culture and fine art.