This June, AIGA DFW welcomes L.A. "pervasive" artist, illustrator, animator, and toy designer Gary Baseman.

Gary Baseman crosses many lines of art as a painter, illustrator, video and performance artist, animator, TV/movie producer, curator, and toy designer. He created the three-time Emmy and BAFTA award-winning animation series, “Teacher’s Pet,” earning him credit as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Entertainment named by Entertainment Weekly Magazine. His work has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Time, and Rolling Stone; and he designed the best-selling game “Cranium.” He has also collaborated with Critterbox, Double Punch, Toy2R, Kidrobot, Swatch, Hobbs & Kent, Harvey’s, Poketo, and Frau Blau. And in 2009, he added performance art to his CV, with "La Noche de la Fusión," and in 2010, "Giggle and Pop!"

Baseman's art combines iconic pop art images, pre- and post-war vintage motifs, cross-cultural mythology and literary and psychological archetypes. His playful, devious and cleverly named creatures recur throughout his body of work. The Los Angeles Times has described his art as “adorably perverse,” humorously playful and dark, childlike but often with adult themes. His fine art has been displayed in galleries and museums in Brazil, Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, and all over the United States.

In April this year, he released his book "The Door Is Always Open," a catalogue to the first museum retrospective of Gary Baseman’s extraordinary work that explores the very personal world of this unique American artist.

"…the book also explores Baseman’s mind, room by room. It includes a look at his relevance, his cultural roots, his best known characters (like Toby, the exceedingly well-traveled Fez-wearing leather plush doll), his many inspirations, his obsession with the feminine, and an astounding range of artwork, from illustration to toy design to performance art, all of which is stunningly cohesive, somehow, and consistently uniquely Baseman-esque." ~typo-graphical.com

Gary Baseman will join us on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at the Lakewood Theater.