Miss Bugs
Miss Bugs was founded in the early part of 2007 in London, originally coming from a background in photography and graphics. Miss Bugs is a Bristol, UK based artistic duo known for their colorful and contemporary kaleidoscopic patterns of resin-encapsulated razorblades, drug paraphernalia, and pop culture icons which explore a common theme of society's obsession and consumption of social media and technology and how these innovations filter what we see.
Working in partnership, they developed fast, spontaneous working methods, cutting and pasting existing images; ‘remixing and sampling classics’ in art to make new pieces with their own mark. Miss Bugs began in the early days making small scale works on paper, using screen printing with hand painted elements. They then scaled the work up, making life size cut outs of characters to place in situ on the streets of London. These were left in place to become part of the cityscape and recorded through photography. Their most recent works are larger scale pieces, incorporating laser cut planes of wood, hundreds of small component objects and poured resin. These pieces are time consuming and labor intensive, and a long way from the quickly constructed art pieces of the early days. Miss Bugs has always taken a broad and varied approach to creating work. The combining of materials and objects, alongside the way contemporary imagery can be collaged together, either by hand, through photography, or using a digital process is important to the duo.
The focus of the work has always been the human form, as Miss Bugs’ interest lies in developing ‘characters’ to tell a story. Archetypal imagery from magazines, art history and films are used as a starting point, which are then cut, overlaid, and distorted to produce character-portraits with an arresting graphic look. The influence of collage and graphic artists like Hannah Hoch and Allen Jones can clearly be seen in the work. The layering and placing of color and pattern are also intrinsic to the work and is very much a hands-on element for Miss Bugs in the construction of the final pieces.
Miss Bugs have exhibited in New York, LA, San Francisco, Paris, and London. Their artwork has been in several significant exhibitions around the world including- Art Miami 2021; The Saatchi gallery Permanent Collection; Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary 2022; Market Art & Design Hamptons 2021; Hamptons Fine Art Fair 2022; Echo Chamber, Miss Bugs, Mayfair, London, UK; Parlour, Miss Bugs, Brooklynite Gallery, NY, USA; The State of Art, Miss Bugs, ink gallery, UK; SASML ft. Faile, Swoon, Cave Gallery, LA, USA; Bingo Night at the Promised Land, New Image Gallery, LA, USA; The Lost Ones ft. Shepard Fairey, The Date Farmers, Upper Playground Fifty24mx - Mexico City, Mexico; 2 Many Artist, Miss Bugs & Joe Black, Brooklynite Gallery, NY, US; Alternativity ft. Eine, Dface, Stella Dore, London, UK
Their unique artistic statement and its implied irony is cemented in the fact that our current technology advances have infiltrated many aspects of our private lives and hold us hostage to our addictions, obsessions, and fascinations.