Vessels

Vessels examines the boat as both a working object and a metaphor for the human condition. Resting in wooden cradles between journeys, the vessels occupy a state of suspension—no longer in motion, yet not entirely at rest. They become quiet meditations on transition, waiting, and the unseen potential of what lies ahead.

Throughout the series, Webb also depicts boats adrift within mirrored landscapes where the distinction between sea and sky dissolves, blurring the boundaries between reality and imagination. These ethereal environments suggest the possibility of an afterlife or a realm beyond the visible, where memory, absence, and presence coexist.

Embedded beneath many of the paintings are handwritten texts contributed by others, often concealed beneath successive layers of paint until only fragments remain visible. Rather than functioning as captions, these hidden voices become collaborators within the work, subtly altering the meaning of each image while acknowledging that identity is never formed in isolation. Contributors ranged from friends and family to community leaders, including civil rights advocate Rev. Dr. Lennett J. Anderson, whose words continue to exist within the paintings even when they can no longer be fully seen.

Viewed within the context of Webb's broader practice, Vessels marks the beginning of an ongoing inquiry into how memory, language, and the traces left by others shape our understanding of self. Long before oral histories became central to his work, these paintings recognized that identity is something we carry collectively, constructed through the voices, experiences, and inheritances of those who came before us.

Selected images

Selected exhibition installation images