Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

Born in Los Angeles and raised in the epicentre of the California hot rod explosion, Ed “Big Daddy” Roth created automotive forms purely from his own imagination. His hand-built creations and revolutionary techniques transformed car design, reinvented American hot rod culture and put Detroit on notice. Each of his creations transcended function and form to turn the American automobile into rolling sculpture.

Roth has been credited with fathering the movement known as Lowbrow Art, and his sculpture, design, and illustration inspired underground cartoonists and tattoo artists, and launched the careers of such artists as Robert Williams.  His most well known motif is the character of Ratfink, perhaps best described as "the anti-Mickey Mouse".