Miss Bugs was founded by two artists in the early part of 2007. With a background in photography and graphics, the pair developed spontaneous working methods, remixing and sampling classic imagery to create new pieces of their own. They began with small scale screen prints on paper, then scaled the work up, making life size cut outs which they pasted up on the streets of London.

Over time, their work then began incorporating laser cut wood, curated objects and poured resin.  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 an intrinsic part of their practice.

Their work is time consuming and labour intensive and a long way from the quickly constructed art pieces of the early days. The focus of their 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.

Within these stark modern portraits and figurative pieces, the resin holds and preserves complex networks of choice components, creating kaleidoscopic chambers of interconnected patterns. Like the patterns found in nature, objects spiral like sunflower heads
or colonies of coral. Using mathematical rotations, symmetry and mirroring, order is created to reflect the man-made social networks that people exist in today.

Plastic Japanese charms, superheroes and surgical blades which have been secured in resin, shimmer like defunct objects trapped in time. The duo’s use of old toy cars and Lego figures is a nostalgic nod to more innocent times. The figurative characters combine meandering organic lines with sharp graphic edges and colourful resin windows, which create a sensual reflective surface to the work, representing the TV and mobile phone screens that today filter people’s perceptions of the world.

To make the large scale, mixed media collages, a range of techniques are used from silkscreen printing onto aluminium sheets, to resin casting. Each piece is constructed using an array of materials, including thousands of small scale objects, from delicate paper cut butterfly wings, to planes of laser cut wood.

The work has a sculptural 3D quality that continually changes with the light, creating an alluring interaction between the blocks of glossy flat colour and the transparent deep resin.

Miss Bugs have exhibited in New York, San Francisco, LA, Paris and London. Their artwork is also in a number of significant private collections around the world.