Joe Webb
Joe Webb
Joe Webb (1976) uses vintage magazines and printed ephemera that he has collected to create simple but elegant hand-made collages. After many years of working on computers as a graphic artist, Joe turned his back on technology and started making ‘analogue’ collages. Since then Joe has published many popular silkscreen prints, sold his work in the Saatchi Gallery and had his work featured on album covers. Webb's work is also an internet sensation with hundreds of thousands of people sharing his images online. "I started making collages as a sort of luddite reaction to working on computers for years. I like the limitations of it...using found imagery and a pair of scissors, there's no googling for material and no Photoshop to resize, adjust or undo. There's an element of serendipity in finding images that work together that can't be replicated in the digital world."
Some of the ideas in his work reflect on on the state of world today, like a 1950's idea of the future that went wrong... while others are more optimistic and surreal. Joe navigates a rich landscape with grace and humour.
"He plays visual elements against each other in a way that puts different eras in dialogue, allowing characters to travel from their 50’s Home Gardening Magazine roots to the far cosmos. He flirts images that are in dialogue with today’s sampling culture, collapsing and hacking together sources from across the universe in fun and rudely jacked up colour schemes.” - Wangechi Mutu, artist.