Image via Complex Original
We first spotted Justin Hager's work on Twitter—a sketch of Beyoncé and Jay Z posing as the couple in American Gothic, but instead of a pitchfork, they had a surfboar(t) between them. It makes sense that the Internet brought us to Hager's work because his paintings and drawings, mash-ups of cultural references that range from Jay Z to J.D. Salinger, are irresistibly sharable.
The artist's pieces usually start with two of his favorite things, like The Beach Boys and Boyz n the Hood, which come together in clever pop culture puns: Beach Boyz n the Hood. We got in touch with Hager about how he comes up with his comical creations. Check out our Portfolio Review: Justin Hager Talks His Hilarious Pop Culture Mash-Ups.
You can find more from Hager on his Instagram and Twitter.
RELATED: Justin Hager Replaces the Pitchfork in "American Gothic" With Jay Z and Beyonce's Surfboardt
RELATED: Portfolio Review: Hueman Tells the Stories Behind Her Colorful, Fragmented Portraits
Salt-n-Pepa's Lonely Hearts Club Band
"I think Salt-n-Pepa are funny, and I really love that Beatles album."
Q*bert Gooding Jr.
"This was fun to paint because I've never really messed with optical illusion stuff because there's too much math involved, and it gets boring to me, but this has one of my favorite video games mixed with Cuba Gooding Jr. from Jerry Maguire."
Rick James Franco
"One of my favorite characters of all time is James Franco's character Daniel in Freaks and Geeks, and Dave Chapelle's Rick James short is amazing."
Big Macaveli
"I wanted to make something with Biggie and 2Pac having beef together but not mean beef, like eating beef together. I was thinking about it for a while, and their names together have 'big mac' in them, so I made them eating Big Macs together at McDonalds"
Ghostbusta Rhymes
"Slimer used to freak me out so bad as a little kid, and Busta Rhymes is tight."
Gwen and Stimpy
"These are two of my favorite icons from the '90s."
Jay Z Salinger
"I'm a big fan of both of Jay Z and J.D. Salinger."
Mike and Ike
"This was one of my first full scenery paintings. I thought it'd be funny to have Mike Tyson beating up Ike Turner in a room with Tina Turner holding a 'ROUND 1' sign and a tiger pouncing and pigeons flying around everywhere eating Mike and Ikes."
Flu Tang Clan (Detail)
"This is another one of my full scene paintings. I thought it would be funny to have Wu Tang in a room hanging out, and they all have the flu."
Beach Boyz n the Hood
"These are two of my all-time favorite things mixed into one: Beach Boys and Boyz n the Hood."
