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David Irvine is an artist known for taking old paintings bought from thrift stores and transforming them into something new and playful.
He adds pop culture characters (like Darth Vader, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Mario) into classic portraits and landscapes, blending traditional art with modern humor.
The art pieces are reworked by painting over the original artwork, creating a humorous twist by introducing unexpected characters or scenarios.
Irvine's work is a form of upcycling—he doesn’t discard the old art, but instead, reuses it to create something fresh, giving new life to otherwise forgotten or outdated art.
His work often blends serious art with irony and humor, which makes it interesting and fun. For example, he might place a Super Mario character in an otherwise serious 19th-century portrait.
Irvine’s goal is to make people laugh and rethink art—by mixing serious, historical art with fun pop culture elements, he challenges the norms of what is considered art and questions traditional views of what art “should” be.
His work can also be seen as a way of redefining art and bringing it into the present day, showing that creativity is not limited to new, original pieces but can also come from reimagining the old.
Titus Kaphar is an artist who uses his work to challenge the way history is remembered and told, especially when it comes to race and inclusion.
In this TED Talk, Kaphar talks about how he reworks historical paintings to expose what is missing from them.
He shows how older paintings often ignore or erase Black people, and he uses his artwork to bring those people back into history.
One example is a painting of a colonial scene with important white historical figures. Kaphar paints over parts of the painting to reveal the Black figures who were originally erased or ignored in the story of the past.
His work is meant to spark discussion about the past and make people think about who gets left out of historical narratives.
Kaphar explains that art is a powerful tool for making people question history and reconsider how we view the stories we’ve been taught.
His art doesn’t just show what happened in the past, but challenges the viewer to rethink how history has been told and whose voices have been silenced.
Kaphar's vision is not just to make art but to create a conversation about justice, memory, and how we need to reshape the way we see the past. He wants people to reflect on the importance of including all perspectives in history.
Kaphar believes that art can be transformative, not just for the person viewing it, but for society as a whole, as it can push people to confront difficult truths and make change possible.
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