Saatchi Gallery presents The Battle for Lobsteropolis, a new exhibition by celebrated contemporary artist Philip Colbert. Known for his hyperpop history paintings, Colbert continues his signature battle scene series, where the lobster battles artificial intelligence in the retro-future world Lobsteropolis.
In this solo show, Colbert’s iconic lobster travels through time and clashes with AI in reimagined historical battle scenes. The exhibition centres on two monumental AI-assisted paintings in which Colbert’s lobster faces off with the tech world. With these works, Colbert channels the grandeur of ancient battle motifs and Renaissance compositions, where heroic struggle and artistic legacy converge in a retro-futuristic, apocalyptic landscape. Colbert’s world is one where art history and digital innovation are constantly in flux, reflecting the ever-evolving tension between history and technological advancement.
Highlighting this epic theme, After Battle of Issus Mosaic reinterprets the famed “Alexander the Great” mosaic—a 2,000-year-old masterpiece rediscovered in Pompeii, and now housed at Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, where Colbert exhibited earlier this year. The artist adapts the composition, transplanting it into his dystopian Lobsteropolis, a place of both nostalgia and foreboding. The battle between Colbert’s lobster and an advancing force of AI avatars compels viewers to reimagine the timeless impact of the history of art as it encounters the digital revolution head-on.