Crush Entity

Crush Entity

Corey Hagberg is a Chicago based mixed media artist whose disciplines include screen printing, painting, graphic design, illustration, sign painting, muralism, writing and learning how to fly. In 1984 at age 5, Corey’s family migrated from the Chicago are to California’s Bay area where the earliest memorable seeds of inspiration began to germinate for Corey. He found inspiration in skateboard graphics, album covers and comic books. Drawn to the absurd, macabre and all things labeled taboo/fringe/off limits, Corey’s imagination was enraptured by the graphics of Santa Cruz skateboards and the scene in general. Corey and his family returned to Chicago in the 90’s. Getting kicked out of the house at age 15, Corey struggled to say the least. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure tale only with heroin, handcuffs, several rehab/jail stints, broken bones, car wrecks, burns, weirder monsters, dead sidekicks, more fire/mayhem, lost souls/causes, getting the girl, losing the girl, one wizard, several witches, and no heroes, Corey still managed to earn a BFA in painting and a Graphics Design Degree.

“My process is very similar to a DJ or music producer’s in the fact that I appropriate snippets of pop culture ephemera and re-contextualize or resurrect it to make something new while paying homage in the process. The beauty in the creative struggle for me is how to bring the viewer into the realm of my sentiments relating to this journey of life, yet still allow them to draw their own conclusions and form their own meanings. My work is mostly about relational perspectives in regards to humans and their environments. Themes of mass or macro communication, constructed identities and how they are assigned/utilized are often juxtaposed against the divinity of nature or the influence of religion/politics/capitalism.” - Corey

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