LONDON.- Gazelli Art House presents Philip Colbert : Splat a Contemporary Art Game live on GAZELL.IO

Known for his strong use of colour and abstraction of iconic imagery, Philip Colbert employs aspects of mass culture and removes them from their context to create a provocative, satirical language of his own. Creating a visual world merging fashion, wall sculptures, furt-niture and design, Colbert conceives the 1950's American kitchen aesthetic as the foundation of ‘Pop’ and layers it with his own playful response to icons and symbols associated with fine art, such as meat imagery, lobsters and pop corn.

For his debut on GAZELL.IO, Colbert has created the interactive pop artwork game SPLAT a Contemporary Art Game capturing the infinite idealism of raw expressionism. In the form of a retro pop computer game style featuring Colbert’s own pop symbols, SPLAT stars his iconic lobster cartoon in an Art School chased by figures resembling Picasso and Van Gogh. The user’s goal is to collect all the tomatoes and eggs as ammunition to create artworks through SPLATTING pop art. Extending his visual world beyond the physical, where the viewer can interact and “create their own artwork within an artwork.”

“I set about to create SPLAT, as I wanted to bring the world alive in the language of modern pop, and pixel graphics. I love the image of a pixilated tomato splatting. As it flies through the air and reaches its target, it desperately strives for abstraction but it is easily recognisable by its iconic green and red colours of the splat aftermath. I liked the idea of the game developing my world of Lobsters and pop surrealism, with a Philip Guston meets Pac Man feel.”

The first open digital space to be developed by a commercial contemporary gallery, GAZELL.IO is accessible for both artist and audience. It aims to provide digital artists with unrestricted access to a virtual gallery space in which they can code their onlineuniverse, showcase their artistic journey and directly interact with their audience. For audiences- who are now increasingly engaged by digital art practice- the initiative will provide the opportunity to experience the artist’s world and freely navigate through an intuitive, immersive and interactive digital space. Notably, GAZELL.IO intends to play an important role in marking the key developments and achievements of both the artists it hosts and the wider digital art world as it evolves and therefore will reinforce the gallery’s commitment to supporting developing art forms.