House of the lobster di Philip Colbert

Born in Scotland and living and working in London, British artist Philip Colbert has created a global following for his cartoon lobster persona and his masterful hyper pop history paintings. His work powerfully explores the patterns of contemporary digital culture and its relationship to a deeper art historical dialogue. His obsession with the lobster is rooted in its historical symbolism within art, language, and time.

In HOUSE OF THE LOBSTER, Colbert pays homage to the roots of lobster mythology through a captivating body of work inspired by the museum’s mosaic collection. The exhibition not only charts the lobster’s significance through art history, but also contemplates the broader themes of mortality, conflict, and the cyclical nature of existence.

At the heart of the exhibition is a marine mosaic, found in Pompeii, featuring a central battle between a lobster, moray eel and octopus. For Colbert, the profound significance of this ensnared conflict led the artist to produce the underwater battle scenes in the Pompeii Series (2023 – present) on display here. Colbert explores the timeless struggle symbolised in the mosaic by the lobster, the eel and the octopus, weaving a narrative of perpetual conflict.