Boyd Webb

(New Zealand, born 1947)

Boyd Webb is a New Zealand-born British photographer. Webb’s surreal images consist of constructed scenes he creates by building sets in his studio and using actors for theatricality. While the sets are artificial-looking, the people in them are resolutely real—thereby consistently toying with the edges of real and imagined spaces. “Fakery and passing off has been a fascinating and essential part of human nature since the beginning and continues, it seems,” he once remarked, “at an ever more devious and accelerating rate. This has been an abiding interest.” His large-scale Cibachrome photographs often feature complex fiberglass sculptures which are composed into disconcerting scenes. Similar to natural history museum dioramas, Webb utilizes shifts in scale, lighting, and dark backdrops to create believable yet entirely artificial environments. Born in 1947 in Christchurch, New Zealand, he attended the Ilam School of Art in Christchurch before moving to England to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Webb was shortlisted for the 1988 Turner Prize, and has exhibited at such institutions as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Stedelijik in Amsterdam, and the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. Webb lives and works in Brighton, United Kingdom.

Boyd Webb Artworks

Boyd Webb (75 results)
Humbolt II, 1981

Boyd Webb

Humbolt II, 1981

Sale Date: November 26, 2014

Auction Closed

Humbolt I, 1981

Boyd Webb

Humbolt I, 1981

Sale Date: November 26, 2014

Auction Closed

Billet Doux (Yellow Dasies), 1997

Boyd Webb

Billet Doux (Yellow Dasies), 1997

Sale Date: December 4, 2013

Auction Closed

Wrist, 1983

Boyd Webb

Wrist, 1983

Sale Date: May 23, 2013

Auction Closed

Fish, 1983

Boyd Webb

Fish, 1983

Sale Date: May 23, 2013

Auction Closed

Dancing Pears

Boyd Webb

Dancing Pears

Sale Date: December 19, 2012

Auction Closed

Escutcheon, 1989

Boyd Webb

Escutcheon, 1989

Sale Date: December 3, 2012

Auction Closed

Thaw, 1989

Boyd Webb

Thaw, 1989

Sale Date: December 3, 2012

Auction Closed

Tutor group, 1983

Boyd Webb

Tutor group, 1983

Sale Date: August 31, 2011

Auction Closed

Unwrought, 1995

Boyd Webb

Unwrought, 1995

Sale Date: June 9, 2011

Auction Closed

Mazurka, 1989

Boyd Webb

Mazurka, 1989

Sale Date: June 9, 2011

Auction Closed

The ventriloquist, 1979

Boyd Webb

The ventriloquist, 1979

Sale Date: April 8, 2011

Auction Closed

The ventriloquist (pair mntd on 1 sheet), 1979

Boyd Webb

The ventriloquist (pair mntd on 1 sheet), 1979

Sale Date: November 13, 2010

Auction Closed

Asteroid and kidney stone, 1996

Boyd Webb

Asteroid and kidney stone, 1996

Sale Date: November 4, 2010

Auction Closed

Light blue (+ 4 others; 5 works), 2003

Boyd Webb

Light blue (+ 4 others; 5 works), 2003

Sale Date: September 29, 2010

Auction Closed

Cortex, 1990

Boyd Webb

Cortex, 1990

Sale Date: December 17, 2008

Auction Closed

Tosser II, 1985

Boyd Webb

Tosser II, 1985

Sale Date: May 16, 2008

Auction Closed

Red shoes, 1982

Boyd Webb

Red shoes, 1982

Sale Date: April 26, 2008

Auction Closed

Guardian, 1981

Boyd Webb

Guardian, 1981

Sale Date: March 4, 2008

Auction Closed

Fish (+ Wrist; 2 works), 1983

Boyd Webb

Fish (+ Wrist; 2 works), 1983

Sale Date: November 12, 2007

Auction Closed

Giraffe, 1982

Boyd Webb

Giraffe, 1982

Sale Date: October 24, 2007

Auction Closed

Cortex, 1990

Boyd Webb

Cortex, 1990

Sale Date: June 28, 2007

Auction Closed

Red shoes, 1992

Boyd Webb

Red shoes, 1992

Sale Date: July 10, 2007

Auction Closed

Giraffe, 1989

Boyd Webb

Giraffe, 1989

Sale Date: April 25, 2007

Auction Closed