H.C. Westermann is known for his folkloric sculptures and works on paper that pair strong moral commentary with playfulness and humor, particularly in his recurring image of the Death Ship. Influenced by his combat experience in World War II and Korea, he frequently depicted scenes of ships burning or sinking among doomed human figures in rat-infested ports. His carved wood sculptures, mixed-media assemblages, and lithographs, woodcuts, and linoleum prints reference Surrealism, Expressionism, Pop art, and "low art" forms like comic books.

Forging an unprecedented and unlikely link between the European Surrealist and American Pop Art movements, William N. Copley painted sweetly humorous, softly pornographic vignettes. His works are Surrealist in their unbridled expressions of sexual desire—he painted couples making love, men and women fantasizing about each other, figures in various states of undress and stages of foreplay. Through his use of bright colors, cartoonish figures, and wildly patterned backgrounds, Copley tempered his sometimes-X-rated imagery with a visual language similar to that of Pop Art. While his imagery is mined from a variety of sources, including racy magazines he would buy from the seedy shops that used to dominate New York’s Times Square, Copley’s work is whimsical, joyful, and lyrical. As he claims: “Humor, after all, is the reminder that we are mortal.” As his paintings suggest, so, apparently, is sex.