Emojis aren't simply a sign of the times. They're also inspiration–and literally the medium–for contemporary artists.

Here are a few of the artists turning the ubiquitous symbolic characters into something uniquely their own.

Yung Jake, "Childish Gambino" | Instagram

1) Yung Jake

Yung Jake is a graphic artist and rapper most recognized for his emoji portraits of celebrities, like Childish Gambino (above) and Kerry Washington, and internet sensations, like Jay Versace. The multi-hyphenate artist has garnered attention in both online and offline spaces through high-profile collaborations with WeTransfer, Ace Hotel and Intel software.

In an iMessage interview with Nylon, Jake talked about his art school roots and identifying the mediums that inspired him most: "I was painting at the time and [although] I was talented in that medium I was more interested in rap. Painting was more superficial for me (i.e. coming to conclusions was a more simple process)," said Jake. "Rap and the internet was my hobby and being in art school made me realize my passion."

2) John Baldessari

John Baldessari, "Numan's Mortuary Meyer" | Sprüth Magers

John Baldessari blends photography, painting, and text in his art work, which focuses on appropriated imagery. Based in California, Baldessari has most recently contributed to the West Coast art scene with his emoji paintings on display at Sprüth Magers gallery in Los Angeles. Each painting is produced with an ink jet to print a perfect emoji on the canvas, followed by hand painting a white background and adding textual snippets from screenplays for a final touch of ambiguous intrigue.

"When I first saw emojis I thought, 'How would they look if they were blown up large?'," John Baldessari told The Guardian. "I did and I liked the way they looked. I said, ‘I’m gonna make some paintings with giant emojis.’ And that’s it."

Image produced using YATTA

3) Maadonna (Kim Asendorf and Emilio Gomariz)

MAADONNA is the artist duo responsible for YATTA, an application that can generate an emoji version of any image file. Kim Asendorf, based in Berlin, is a conceptual artist most known for Pixel Sorting, an Open Source image altering algorithm. Emilio Gomariz, based in London, is a visual artist who uses internet culture (most notably Dragon Ball Z) to create digital, multimodal art.

In a Q&A with It's Nice That, a daily newsite for creatives, MAADONNA said of their art "We simply do art online... We love the colourful aesthetics modern displays can offer, the way you are able to experience it at home on your computer, and how easily everything can be distributed on the internet."