Career
He is considered part of the People’s Surrealism, Lowbrow Art Movement and Art and Designer Toys movement. Joe Ledbetter (aka: JLed) is an artist, illustrator and toy designer based in Los Angeles, California. His distinctive style is deeply influenced by classic animation, underground comics, skateboarding and 1980′s 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. In 2005, Wheaty Wheat Studios produced "Mr.
Bunny", the first Joe Ledbetter figure.
lieutenant 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 "People’s 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 (Principal Investigator-2011)
Piggy Bank (Principal Investigator-2011)
Burger Bunny - wood (The Loyal Subjects-2012)
Burger Bunny - inflatable (The Loyal Subjects-2012)
Chaos Bunnies series (The Loyal Subject-2012,2013).
