Fresh Take: Emoji Nation

"Emoji Nation" by Kiev-based Nastya Nudnik

Ukrainian artist Natasya Ptichek was toying around on her phone recently when she had a revelation of sorts: many of the emojis she’d been using had begun to resemble well-known works of art. She began to mash up classical works of art with modern elements.  She overlaid Windows-style dialog boxes and social media notifications and icons over paintings to create ironic commentaries.  Ptichek's first emoji-nation series paired emoticons with iconic artwork, whereas her third one reimagined famous artwork as movie posters. Below are selected work from Ptichek's second, fourth, and fifth installments of emoji-nation.

"I adore playing on contrasts and try to put dualism in every work, no matter it is an illustration, a painting or a collage. Emoji-nation is big a complex of different projects united by one idea. And I don’t know whether it is already done, because the further development of Emoji-nation depends on my mood and some ‘sudden clarity.’"