--- title: Artist Turns Viral Memes Into Fine Art Paintings description: Artist Alim Smith is paying homage to the viral meme by taking beloved images and giving them the fine art treatment. canonical: https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-17T21:26:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:01.021Z og:title: This Painter is Turning Viral Memes Into Fine Art Portraits og:description: From Crying Jordan to Uncle Denzel og:url: https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Painter is Turning Viral Memes Into Fine Art Portraits twitter:description: From Crying Jordan to Uncle Denzel twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Meet the Artist Who's Giving Viral Memes Like Crying Jordan the Fine Art Treatment > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 17, 2017 9:26 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Mar 17, 2017 9:26 PM UTC [Memes](http://time.com/4661033/lady-gaga-super-bowl-memes-2017/), those viral bastions of internet culture, are more than just clicks, likes and jokes — they can function as commentary on the times and in some cases, as veritable cultural touchstones. In fact, in the age of social media, a picture of a [crying Michael Jordan](http://time.com/4375049/crying-lebron-jordan-game-7/) can say more than a thousand words. So it should come as no surprise that memes are now getting the fine art treatment, thanks to an artist named Alim Smith, whose known to his more than 18,000 Instagram followers as @yesterdaynite. Smith’s latest series of paintings feature the most iconic memes of recent history (although all memes probably fall within the recent history range) as seen through what he describes as his “Afro surrealist” style. Through Smith’s interpretation, everything from the Crying Jordan meme to the[ Confused Nick “Swaggy P” Young meme](http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/confused-nick-young) becomes an abstract masterpiece. Smith told TIME that he was inspired by the ways that visual culture and social media connect millions everyday. “I was inspired to paint memes as they, by themselves, represent a powerful form of art,” he said. “Powerful, because they are a connector for millions who use the internet each and every day. \[It’s\] a visual representation of contemporary culture, and specifically black culture, as it exists in social media.” See Smith’s evocative meme art below. “Crying Jordan” gets the fine art treatment. Confused Nick Young is now Surrealist Nick Young. Keisha Johnson, "Confused Face Girl," was depicted against a beautiful sunset. [](//platform.instagram.com/en%5FUS/embeds.js) Even Uncle Denzel got the Alim Smith transformation. [A post shared by ALIM SMITH (@yesterdaynite)](https://www.instagram.com/p/BRgqqsOFD3F/) on Mar 11, 2017 at 11:58am PST ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/"},"headline":"Meet the Artist Who's Giving Viral Memes Like Crying Jordan the Fine Art Treatment","datePublished":"2017-03-17T21:26:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:01.021Z","description":"From Crying Jordan to Uncle Denzel","url":"https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Art","Culture","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4705666/alim-smith-meme-photos/","name":"Meet the Artist Who's Giving Viral Memes Like Crying Jordan the Fine Art Treatment"}}]}] ```