Philip Colbert is a London-based artist who encapsulates the spirit of Pop-Art in his humorous, colourful, and flamboyant creations inspired by mass culture and visual media.
Colbert works in a wildly exuberant aesthetic that updates the legacy of collage for the internet age. His works are saturated with the detritus of everyday icons, symbols, and objects and are sometimes narrated by the distinctive personality of his comical lobster alter ego. Colbert’s oil paintings challenge and toy with the viewer’s cultural vocabulary – superimposing commonplace banal objects onto painted faces and merging portraiture with popular culture in a Magritte-like fashion.
Full observation of Colbert’s paintings cannot be done with a quick scan, because every nook and crevice is crammed with so much whimsical detail that the eye cannot help but linger, he states “My work is a reflection of the hyper saturation of our culture – iconic images from art history alongside iconic brand images which reflect our crazy ferocious appetite for image consumption.” Emojis, computer windows, classical architecture, Lichtenstein spots, comic book sound effects, cactus plants, pixelated mouse cursors — all manner of things have a place in Colbert’s artwork.
Watch our video interview with Philip below: