30 Jul 2026 | Updated: 30 Jul 2026
By: Alex D'arcy-Orga

LOBSTERS INVADE WOKING! PHILIP COLBERT’S LOBSTEROPOLIS ARRIVES AT THE LIGHTBOX

The hometown of H.G. Wells is preparing for a new kind of invasion. This summer, internationally acclaimed Pop artist Philip Colbert will transform Woking’s Lightbox Gallery & Museum into an artistic spectacle featuring hundreds of lobsters in the town forever associated with The War of the Worlds.

Open now, The Lost Gardens of Lobsteropolis – Colbert’s first-ever UK museum exhibition – immerses visitors in his expansive universe, presenting a major body of new and previously unseen works spanning painting, sculpture and installation.

Inspired by the mythical Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Colbert reimagines lost ancient worlds as surreal contemporary landscapes where art history, mythology, consumer culture and digital imagery collide.

The Lost Gardens of Lobsteropolis is Philip Colbert’s largest painting to date

At the heart of the exhibition is Colbert’s largest painting to date – The Lost Gardens of Lobsteropolis – a monumental new work inspired by Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Here, Bosch’s fantastical landscape is overtaken by countless versions of Colbert’s iconic lobster alter ego, creating a hyperreal pop carnival staged among the ruins of antiquity.

Presented in Woking – the setting for the opening chapters of Wells’ The War of the Worlds – the exhibition playfully echoes the town’s rich science-fiction heritage. Instead of Martians descending from the skies, visitors can expect an invasion of Pop art lobsters, transforming The Lightbox into an immersive world of humour, mythology, colour and imagination.

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Philip Colbert said, “I’ve always been interested in creating entire worlds through art. The Lost Gardens of Lobsteropolis imagines a place where ancient mythology, art history and contemporary culture all collide. Bringing this exhibition to Woking, with its connection to H.G. Wells and world-building on such an epic scale, feels particularly fitting.”

Sarah Brown, Director of Lightbox Gallery & Museum, said, “Woking in Surrey has been home to many ‘firsts’ – including in 2008 when Lightbox Gallery & Museum was awarded the very first Art Fund Prize. Since then our exhibition programme has brought work by world-famous artists to Woking – recently Grayson Perry, Paula Rego, Henry Moore and Andy Warhol – and we are thrilled to be working with Philip Colbert on his first museum show.

“Philip’s hyper-pop, surrealist history paintings and larger-than-life lobster alter ego make complex ideas accessible, playful and importantly fun as he invites us on a journey through history and art. It is wonderful to show his work at Lightbox and to invite audiences into his surreal world.”

Alongside new floral paintings, shaped canvases inspired by Frank Stella, large-scale sculptures and works from Colbert’s celebrated Battle Series, the exhibition explores themes of repetition, spectacle and mass culture while expanding the traditions of Pop Art into an immersive environment. Often described as the ‘godson of Andy Warhol’, Colbert has become internationally recognised for his distinctive lobster persona and his ambitious reinvention of Pop Art for the digital age. His works have been exhibited around the world, from London and Paris to Seoul, Shanghai and New York.