Joe Ledbetter (born 1977) is an American artist and art toy designer from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

(also known as JLed). He is considered part of the

Pop Surrealism Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, is an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1960s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, graffiti, and ...

, Lowbrow Art Movement and Art and Designer Toys movement.

Career

Joe Ledbetter (aka: J.Led) is an artist, illustrator and toy designer based in Los Angeles, CA. His distinctive style is deeply influenced by classic animation, underground comics, skateboarding and 1980s video games. Over the years, Ledbetter has created an incredible cast of creatures used to anthropomorphize the human condition. With crisp bold lines and a vibrant palette, he mixes irony, social criticism and mischief making his work universal and unmistakable. He earned a degree in Sociology from Humboldt State University in 2001, and despite his lack of formal art training, began his career as a graphic artist in the apparel industry. Working his way up from underground art shows, he's been at his craft full-time since 2004 holding art exhibitions in over 10 countries, collaborating with top brands (Nike, Swatch, Sony Music, Kidrobot), exhibiting in museum shows (Andy Warhol Museum, MADRE Museum Italy, Bristol City Museum, Riverside Art Museum), sold work at Christie's auction house in New York, and has been featured in the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''People'' Magazine, ''Juxtapoz'' Magazine and ''Hi-Fructose'' Magazine. He is most known for his innovative and distinctive designer toys.

Art toys

In 2005, Wheaty Wheat Studios produced "Mr. Bunny", the first Joe Ledbetter figure. It was released in three colorways. Mr. Bunny is now considered an icon of the vinyl art toy movement. In 2008 Mr. Bunny took part with other "most wanted" designer toys to the

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

"Pop Culture" auction. Over 100 toys has been created by Ledbetter, including: * Mr Bunny (Wheaty Wheat -2005) * Fire-Cat (Wheaty Wheat -2005) * Ringo Bear (Wheaty Wheat -2006) * Teeter ( Kidrobot-2006/2007) * Sluggonadon - part of the Kaiju for Grownups series (Wonderwall-2007) * Gamerita - part of the Kaiju for Grownups series (Wonderwall-2007) * Finders Keepers Miniseries ( Kidrobot -2007) * Hammerhead (Intheyellow-2008) * Bummer (Fully Visual-2008) * Smash (Toy2R-2008) * Unicornasaurus ( Kidrobot -2008) * Slander (Play Imaginative-2009) * Terror and Magnus (The Loyal Subjects-2009) * Octobunny (2009) * Magnus and Friday (The Loyal Subjects-2010) * Pico and Wilshire (The Loyal Subjects-2010) * Wrecks and Dazey (Analog Playset-2010) * Chinese Zodiac (PI-2011) * Piggy Bank (PI-2011) * Burger Bunny - wood (The Loyal Subjects-2012) * Burger Bunny - inflatable (The Loyal Subjects-2012) * Chaos Bunnies series (The Loyal Subject-2012,2013) File:Joe_Ledbetter's_Art_Toys,_Mr._Bunny.jpg, Mr. Bunny 2012

Works & collaborations

Ledbetter collaborated on several projects with

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...

, Ride Snowboards, Sony Music, GAMA-GO,

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

, Last Gasp Press, Dark Horse and his visuals of his art has been published in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', ''

People The term "the people" refers to the public or Common people, common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. I ...

'', ''Hi-fructose'', ''

Juxtapoz ''Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine'' (pronounced ''JUX-tah-pose'') is a magazine created in 1994 by a group of artists and art collectors including Robert Williams, Fausto Vitello, C.R. Stecyk III (a.k.a. Craig Stecyk), Greg Escalante, and Eric ...

'', ''

DPI DPI may refer to: Organizations * Department of Public Information, related to U.N. *Daffodil Polytechnic Institute, an educational institution of Bangladesh * Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, an educational institution of Bangladesh * Disabled Peop ...

'', and '' Playtimes''. Ledbetter's art has been featured in museum shows, including

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore (Pittsburgh), North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent co ...

, MADRE Museum of Contemporary Art of Naples,

Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery Bristol Museum & Art Gallery is a large museum and art gallery in Bristol, England. The museum is situated in Clifton, about from the city centre. As part of Bristol Culture and Creative Industries it is run by the Bristol City Council with no ...

, and

Riverside Art Museum Riverside Art Museum is an art museum in the historic Mission Inn District of Riverside, California. The museum is a non-profit organization which focuses on addressing social issues and offers art classes as well as other events in order to in ...

. In 2010 he created the entire art for the

Motion City Soundtrack Motion City Soundtrack is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1997. The band's line-up consists of vocalist and guitarist Justin Pierre, lead guitarist Joshua Cain, keyboardist Jesse Johnson, bassist Matthew Ta ...

album '' My Dinosaur Life''.

Publications

* ''Creatures of Habit: The Art of Joe Ledbetter'', Last Gasp press, 2009 () * ''Joe Ledbetter's Sketchbook'', Nerdcore, 2008 () * ''I Am Plastic: The Designer Toys Explosion'', Paul Budnitz, Abrams, 2006 () * ''Toygiants'', Daniel & Geo Fuchs, Selim Varol, 2007 () * ''I Am Plastic Too: The Next Generation of Designer Toys'', Paul Budnitz, Abrams, 2010 () * ''Art-Toys: Photographs by Brian McCarty'', Brian McCarty, Tattoo Books, 2010 ()

References

External links

*
Joe Ledbetter's YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ledbetter, Joe Living people 1977 births American illustrators American contemporary artists Artists from Los Angeles California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt alumni Date of birth missing (living people)