The Lost Gardens of Lobsteropolis welcomes visitors into Philip Colbert’s bold and exuberant visual universe. Best known for his iconic lobster character, the exhibition presents large scale paintings and immersive environments that combine art history, popular culture, and the imagery of contemporary digital life. Colbert’s work is energetic, humorous, and visually saturated, offering a playful but sharply observed reflection on how images circulate and accumulate meaning today.
Colbert’s lobster becomes a guide through shifting cultural landscapes where past and present intermingle. Joyful and visually spectacular, the exhibition reflects on how images shape our understanding of the world and how artists continually reinvent the stories we tell about ourselves.
At the heart of the exhibition is a monumental new painting that stages a fantastical journey through myth, technology, and contemporary visual culture. Colbert’s striking flower paintings and shaped canvases extend this playful world, reworking traditional subjects with graphic intensity.
Philip Colbert biography
Born in Scotland in 1979 and now living and working in London, Colbert is often described as the “godson of Andy Warhol”. After completing an MA in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, he developed a distinctive practice that draws on the legacy of early Pop artists such as Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist. His paintings fuse references to Old Master compositions and modernist art with the everyday symbols of mass culture, all narrated through the eyes of his lobster persona. Colbert has been championed by figures including Charles Saatchi and Simon de Pury.
Colbert’s work has been exhibited internationally, including The Battle for Lobsteropolis at Saatchi Gallery, London, Colour Beyond Time at Whitestone Gallery, Taipei, and Lobster Land at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai and the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow. The Gardens of Lobsteropolis invites audiences to explore how art history and contemporary culture collide in Colbert’s imaginative world.
