Welcome Gary Baseman!

Gary Baseman will take part ot the Urban Superstar Show 2010.
Gary Baseman espone a Urban Superstar Show 2010.
Gary Baseman was born in 1960 in Los Angeles, California, a first generation American of Polish descent. Baseman graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Communications from UCLA and he decided to move to New York City to pursue his passion of drawing. He worked as commercial illustrator for ten years, and in that time his illustrations appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine and Time among other publications. He has also worked for international corporate clients such as Nike, Kodak, Chili’s, Gatorade, Mercedes-Benz, Labatt, and Thomas Cook. During the 90s, Baseman was commissioned to create several animation projects for Nickelodeon, which never made it to a screen. In 1997 he moved back to Los Angeles. Baseman art directed and executively produced the series "Teacher's Pet (aired from 2000 to 2002) for Disney as he teamed up with director Timothy Bjorklund and the Steinkellners. The show went on to win three Emmy Awards and a BAFTA — as a result, “Teacher’s Pet” was released as a Disney feature-length animated film in January 16, 2004. Today, his artwork is easily recognized for a “Baseman piece” because of its highly consistent style, diverging in theme matters, however devoted to creating wacky cartoon-type animals and humans placed in surreal worlds. Each art piece is like a film, a story begins to unfold slowly to the viewer, as you look two, three, four more times you begin to see more details to the characters that tell an elaborate plot. In 2002, he was in Japan along side Mark Ryden and Tim Biskup for a collaborative art show called “Hello from Los Angeles". Baseman describes his art genre as: “where the line between genius and stupidity has been smudged beyond recognition.” Indeed, there are these two opposite elements being combined, but that is what makes his art so appealingly different — therefore recognized at the prestigious permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome MACRO. Having a big ego and outrageous goals to accomplish, Baseman is definitely a workaholic who hasn’t stopped with a mere Emmy Award; he paints, designs toys, lectures at Universities, book signs. He is a multi-disciplinary talent whose success has crossed over to these various art fields and audiences. He calls this “Pervasive Art,” i.e. “the notion is that as long as you stay true to your aesthetic, and have a strong sense of meaning, then the work can be appropriate in almost any medium — from print to TV to film to paintings to commerce”.

Gary Baseman è nato ad Hollywood nel 1960 da genitori originari della Polonia. Si è laureato in Phi Beta Kappa in Communications ad UCLA. Dopo aver lavorato per dieci anni a NY come illustratore per marchi come Nike, Kodak, Chili’s, Gatorade, Mercedes-Benz, Labatt, e Thomas Cook ed essere stato pubblicato su riviste prestigiose come The New York Times, Rolling Stone Magazine e Time, nel 1997 torna a Los Angeles. Comincia la collaborazione con gli studios Disney per la realizzazione del cartoon “Teacher’s pet” che vince tre Emmy Awards e il BAFTA, fino alla realizzazione di un lungometraggio realizzato nel gennaio 2004. La sua arte è popolata da animali-cartoon fuori dal comune che vivono in mondi surreali, ed ogni singola opera è come un film in cui, guardando più attentamente,si scoprono dettagli che raccontano un plot sempre più complesso. Nel 2002 ha partecipato in Giappone con gli artisti di fama mondiale Mark Ryden e Tim Biskup allo show collettivo “Hello from Los Angeles” e quindi ha lavorato alla sua personale “ Happy Idiot”. I suoi disegni appaiono innocenti e “naif”, mentre nascondo il racconto di desideri adulti, sesso e l’accettazione dell’attrazione dell’uomo per la bellezza irraggiungibile. I suoi lavori fanno parte delle collezioni permanenti del National Portrait Gallery di Washington D.C. e del Museo d’arte contemporanea MACRO di Roma. La sua incessante attività va dalla pittura, toys design, lezioni presso diverse università americane, signings, da vero guru della Pervasive Art: ”Se si è fedeli alla propria estetica, unito a un forte senso del significato, allora si può applicare il proprio lavoro a qualsiasi medium, dalla stampa alla TV, dai film alla pittura e al commercio”.

Painting Courtesy ©Gary Baseman