British collage artist Joe Webb (b. 1976, London) began his artistic career as a graphic designer, making the leap to be a full-time artist in 2012.
Joe graduated from his BA in Fine Art at the University of Arts London, and after years of following a commercial art pathway he decided to break free of a computer and desk and make hand-cut collages as a means of escapism.
After gaining momentum online with his work going viral, Joe was encouraged to enter into a Saatchi Gallery competition with his work ‘Antares & Love II’. After winning, he was offered an exhibition at the gallery a year later, and his success has continued ever since.
Joe reimagines found imagery using simple and concise edits to make thought provoking artworks. He looks at issues such as the environment, war, inequality - and questions our place in the universe asking us to become more aware, conscious and content.
"I make collages from newspapers, mixing up one image with another, usually found from the same newspaper examining the craziness of the modern world. All of my images are hand-made, without the use of computers. I find the images in newspapers, magazines given on trains, buses and bins.
"My collages work to a basic rule of sourcing just two or three images. With these I can reinvent the original scene to communicate a new idea.
"I suppose I’ve become fairly anti-technology. Although I now promote my art on websites, own an iPhone and use Facebook. It’s confusing, I wish I had been born 100 years ago.” **
Joe's artwork has been bought by Coldplay, his work cited for their music video ‘Up&Up’, and he has been commissioned by record label companies to make the album art for music artists such as Janelle Monae and Tears for Fears.
Joe has had solo exhibitions in various galleries including Jealous Gallery (London), Hang Up Gallery (London), and Feinkunst Kruger (Hamburg), as well as group exhibitions at Hicks Gallery (London), For Arts Sake (London), London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Art (London), Enter Gallery (Brighton), Turner Barnes Gallery (Chelmsford), Chappell Contemporary (Whitstable), and The Cat Street Gallery (Hong Kong).
Joe supports, with artwork donations, charities such as The Eden Project, Heart Research UK and the The Big Issue.
Joe lives and works in the UK.
** Source: “I Create Cynical Collages That Tell The Uncomfortable Truth About Our Modern World”, BoredPanda, 2014
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