Maybe I could have picked a less frenzied time to visit Gary Baseman and Denise Gray at their home less than three weeks until the opening of Gary's latest New York Solo Show. But why go to the Big Apple when the best art there is made here in Los Angeles anyway?
I drove over on a weekday afternoon and got to see the working parts of "Walking Through Walls". This show is a bit of a departure for Baseman. The themes of death, mortality and one's legacy were easy to decipher despite being delivered in the artist's trademarked cartoon joy. I told Gary that I thought he was brave to be addressing the deeper issues, finding a way to express them in his iconography. A lot of artists at his level of success would never veer from the profitable path to bring in such themes. He didn't feel that this was brave at all. He felt it had to be done.
Considering the recent passing of his father, Gary told me "I think I am doing what an artist is supposed to do. Even though I use a language that has evolved from cartoon and childhood influences, all my exhibitions try to explore the depths of the human condition."
Studio Visit with Gary Baseman
Gary Baseman's solo show Walking through Walls opened on March 5 at New York's Johnathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea. The show runs through April 2.