Lauren Kaelin

            Lauren Kaelin creates oil paintings of internet memes from Grumpy Cat to the Dramatic Gopher. Kaelin is from Brooklyn and graduated from Smith College. Her artwork is inspired by the Walter Benjamin theory that art loses its value with reproduction. She does the exact opposite of this theory and paints images that we have seen dozens of times. The first meme she painted was the Ikea Monkey. She posted it onto Facebook and got such an overwhelming response to it, possibly because it is easily recognizable or because she took a meme and gave it some elevation. From there, she painted more she was already familiar with and then some that were gaining popularity that would make the series more complete. I find her paintings to be fun and a more modern form of Pop Art.