| Designer Toys & The Artists |
 MARK RYDEN Born 1963 in Oregon, USA Mark grew up in Southern California and now creates his art in Sierra Madre, California. His work combines a super-cute cartoon quality, where the children in the paintings look like doe-eyed dolls. Ryden has said himself that his artistic inspiration is drawn from the treasures he finds while browsing the flea market. He buys old photographs, books, toys, anatomical models, stuffed animals, skeletons, religious paraphernalia and vintage paper ephemera. Inhabiting an ethereal, fairytale landscape laced with laughter in the dark, Mark mixes his saccharin-sweet imagery with archetypal modern day horror like a master poisoner serving up battenburg cake. He lives in his private studio in Eagle Rock, California with his two children, Jasper and Rosie Ryden. Essential designer toys: "YWHW" figures with Necessaries Toy Foundation. Markryden.com  TARA McPHERSON Born 1976 in San Francisco, California. Tara studied art at Santa Monica Community College and earned her BFA from Art Center in Pasadena, CA in August 2001 with honors in Illustration and a minor in Fine Art. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. Recalling many issues from childhood and good old life experience, she creates images that are thought provoking and seductive. People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work. She lives in New York. Essential designer toy: "Lilitu" figure with Kidrobot Black. Taramcpherson.com  JOE LEDBETTER Born 1977, in L.A. JLed is influenced by classic animation, graphic design, and daily life, Joe Ledbetter's art is a lot of things. Light-hearted in its approach, he often combines cute and cuddly creatures with unfortunate and humorous situations. With a lean on the subversive and absurd, these scenarios are all too familiar, questioning our tendency of taking life (and ourselves) too seriously. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, Rome, Toronto, Taipei, Istanbul, and Amsterdam. His cast of iconic creatures have since been emblazoned on over 100 designer vinyl toys, as well as apparel and lifestyle brands, the world over. He lives in L.A. Essential designer toy: "Mr Bunny" with Wheaty Wheat Studios.
Joeledbetter.com
 MARI INUKAI Born in Nagoya, Japan. Mari came to the US to pursue her studies in art. She attended California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, where she received her BFA in Character Animation in 2004. Her professional works include Hello Kitty, Disney, Cartoon Network & Nickelodeon Her short animated film, Blue and Orange, has been an official selection at numerous national and international film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival 2003, and was the Japanese Grand Prix winner at the Short Shorts Film Festival EXPO 2005. Mari regularly exhibits her paintings and drawings, and designs clothes, ceramic toy figures and other fun products. She lives in Beverly Hills with her daughter, Sena. Essential designer toys: "Sekaiseifukudan" figures with Inner Sanctum.
Mariinukai.com
 GARY BASEMAN Born 1960, in L.A. He is the creator of the Emmy-winning ABC/Disney cartoon series, Teacher’s Pet, and the artistic designer of Cranium, a popular board game. Combining iconic pop art images, pre- and post-war vintage motifs, cross-cultural mythology and literary and psychological archetypes, he is noted for his playful, devious and cleverly named creatures, which recur throughout his body of work. His illustrations have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Clutter Magazine, Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. He has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the US and in Brazil, Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, Spain, and Taiwan. Baseman’s work is featured in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome. Essential designer toy: "Dumb Luck" with Critterbox.
Garybaseman.com
 CAMILLA D'ERICCO Born 1980, Canada. Camilla is a comic book illustrator, painter and visual artist. In 2006 she participated in shows at Vancouver’s Ayden Gallery in Gastown. Since early 2007, Camilla began showing her work in galleries across the US and Canada, in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Vancouver in the Lowbrow art movement. She is among the group of female artists including Audrey Kawasaki, and Amy Sol who paint beautiful young girls in the Pop Surrealism category.
With her work on Helmetgirls, d'Errico expanded upon the concept of headgear to include animals of all kinds, intertwining and juxtaposing her stylized, fantasy girls with life-like animals. Her girls are unusually stunning, doe-eyed and magnificently colourful female characters. Essential designer toy: "Kuro" with Inner Sanctum. Camilladericco.com
 NATHAN JUREVICIUS Born 1973 in Australia. He has worked as a freelance illustrator and artist for many international companies and publications. His clients have included Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Fuji, MTV, ABC, Warner Bros. and a major commission to design the Australian mascot (Kamone) for the World Expo in Aichi, Japan. The world of Scarygirl is a vision that is filled with psychedelic colours, dream-like compositions and heartfelt stories that recall fables and folklore from our shared cultural memory. The brand since its creation in 2001 has developed an underground following of fans throughout the globe through its comic, limited edition vinyl toys, designer products and traveling shows. He lives in Australia. Essential designer toy: "Treedweller" figure with Flying Cat.
Nathanj.com
 Ajee Born in Paris, France. She studied at Beaux-Arts (French school of fine art) and has worked in fashion and advertising which she cites as being a big influence in her current work Previous vinyl include production direction for Jon Knox‘s "Cody", The "Dunny Panty Show" for the "Love me! I’m French" series by Kidrobot & her "SkullSkin" series by Extended Plays 2008.
Her works have featured in: Toys from the Underground, Playtimes, X Funs, Toy Garage, Le Monde, Graffittiart & Clutter.
She lives in Paris, France.
Essential designer toys: "Kosplay" vinyl series with ExtendedPlayZ.
Ajee.fr
 LUKE CHUEH Born in Philadelphia, US. Luke Chueh (pronounced CHU) studied graphic design at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obipso where he earned a BS in Art & Design (Graphic Design concentration). Chueh has quickly worked his way up the ranks of the LA art scene, establishing himself as an artist not to be ignored. Employing minimal color schemes, simple animal characters, and a seemingly endless list of ill-fated situations, Chueh stylistically balances cute with brute, walking the fine line between comedy and tragedy. Chueh's work has been featured in galleries around the world, and some of his paitnings have also been reinterpreted into vinyl toys. Essential designer toy: "Black and White and Red all over" with Munky King. Lukechueh.com  KATHIE OLIVAS Born 1976 in US. Kathie is a multi-media artist and member of Circus Posterus art collective. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the globe. Her current body of work, entitled the "Misery Children" series focuses on subverting the idea of "cuteness." This often serves as a means to make something innocent and more appealing, her art is based on the discomfort of "what if" Inspired by early American portraiture that often depicted children as small adults in an idealized new land, the characters parallel this vision within their own sense of post-apocalyptic conformity, uniquely documenting their own stories in a mysterious brave new world. She lives in Albuquerque, NM. US Essential designer toy: "Skelve" figure with Brandt Peters. Miserychildren.com  PETE FOWLER Born 1969 in Cardiff, Wales, UK. Pete is probably best known for his artwork for the Welsh band Super Furry Animals. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster creator" inspired by Japanese art, folklore, myths, psychedelia and super nature. He has also done a number of other projects in the UK and Japan, such as television advertisements (Kia Picanto), creating iconic figures for UK band The Magic Numbers & the surreal UK cult comedy The Mighty Boosh, as well as having art exhibitions all over the world. Fowler works in a variety of media, including drawing, painting, animation, and sculpture. Essential designer toy: "Giant Snorse" with Playbeast. Monsterism.net
 JEREMIAH KETNER Born 1974 in Moline, IL, US. Jeremiah is an emerging artist on the lowbrow art scene that combines a unique and lovingly intricate painting style with a sublime colour aesthetic that is starting to outflank many established Pop Surrealist icons. Having begun his formal art studies at the prodigal age of just 12, Jeremiah now holds a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design and an MFA from Southern Illinois University. His highly sought after paintings and art toys have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in over 50 galleries worldwide. He lives and works in Chicago, IL. US Essential designer toys: Keep an eye out in 2012 for Jeremiah's very first production piece. Smallandround.com  JAMIE HEWLETT Born 1968, Sussex, UK. Jamie is an English comic book artist and designer. He is known worldwide as being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz. He lists his key influences as the popular manga Akira, Japan's Studio Ghibli, George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead and The Exorcist. Essential designer toys: "Gorillaz Red" set with Kidrobot. Gorillaz.com & tank-girl.com
|
|
