NEO GOLDEN AGE

This exhibition ran from November 8, 2020 to March 14, 2021, featuring British neo-pop artist Philip Colbert and Canadian street artist Trevor Andrew with their respective themes "Lobster Land" and "Eye Opening", presented in a unique "dual solo exhibition" format. Through groundbreaking attempts at different creative media and forms of expression, the two artists' works and ideas also engaged in an impressive dialogue across space.

Looking Back at the "Golden Age"
In the 1980s, Andy Warhol, known as the "King of Pop Art", and street art icon Jean-Michel Basquiat began a mentorship and friendship that eventually led to their "creative marriage". This legendary friendship during the "Golden Age" was a microcosm of that anti-traditional art movement period that explored the connections between popular culture, social emotions, and art, and is also a spiritual highland that later artists pay tribute to.

Recreating the "New Golden Age"
Today, Philip Colbert and Trevor Andrew inherit this anti-traditional artistic spirit, presenting new attitudes and definitions of contemporary pop and street art through diverse, cross-boundary, and unconventional artistic practices, aiming to open a "new golden age" of contemporary pop and street art.

Philip Colbert: Lobster Land
Philip Colbert is a representative figure of contemporary neo-pop art, hailed as "Andy Warhol's godson", whose creations span painting, sculpture, fashion, furniture, and design.

The "lobster" that runs through Colbert's work is not only a classic image in art history but also a "second personality" he has given himself in his artistic practice. Colbert integrates rich art historical language into fragments of life in the real world, transforming them into scenes in the lobster world through numerous metaphors and allusions, creating a surreal new pop world based on reality—Lobster Land. In this, Colbert's largest solo exhibition to date, "Lobster Land", there is also an impressive large-scale visual art experience space.

For Colbert, "The rich resources of art history create a language, painting is a communication tool, and the unconscious world beyond reality can break free from all constraints, with life and living being the ultimate essence of art." In this utopian-toned ideal country, the audience becomes residents of Lobster Land for a day, dissolving the boundaries between reality and virtual through an immersive sensory experience.

Trevor Andrew: Eye Opening
Trevor Andrew is a representative figure of contemporary graffiti art, but his legendary career extends far beyond that—he also has multiple identities as an Olympic athlete, creative musician and band vocalist, Gucci's cross-boundary collaboration darling "Gucci Ghost", comic series creator, and street fashion brand director.

Long-term cross-domain artistic practice has given Andrew an extremely unique artistic perspective and a distinctive artistic language with a strong personal style. His creations are never limited to traditional artistic media; common everyday objects, even garbage, can become the creative matrix for Andrew.

"Eye Opening" is Trevor Andrew's first major retrospective solo exhibition, presenting not only an oversized installation space that exceeds conventions but also paying tribute to classic scenes from the artist's personal career. Andrew mentions, "I've been creating all my life, and this creation is exaggerated, beyond rationality, yet it is the most authentic motivation for all my art." Here, energy extracted from the most everyday can also be eye-opening, encouraging viewers to explore the value behind everything.

This exhibition impacts contemporary cultural context and consumerist values with a new presentation method, reinforcing real-life scenarios with unconventional installation proportions, and opening a new golden age of contemporary pop and street art through immersive sensory substitution.

"Philip Colbert and Trevor Andrew have detached themselves from traditional art forms and entered a diverse world of cultural production. They have transformed their artistic images into all-encompassing and highly recognizable brands, grasping the ever-changing essence of society. To adapt to today's fast-paced cultural consumerism, artists create powerful and distinctive artistic identities through unique visual identifiers, which is indispensable.
The two iconic artists adhere to the principle of using 'traditional' pop art as a vehicle for practice, driving their works with personal experiences and styles, helping pop art of the 1950s find a place in today's society that is obsessed with social media and crazy about brands."
— Yicang Art Museum