Urban Art Association

Is it just me or has Miss Bugs started reproducing a lot of very similar prints with similar used imagery recently?

I like the size. I wonder what pricing will be like. looks very similar to all their other recent releases, imo.

I'd imagine in the range of the last release so as above £350 - £400.

Also agree the image I picked up earlier in the month works much better, for me anyway. This is still a nice image.

I'm still waiting for mine too soupysound. I got a email late last week saying they were going out on 19th/20yh so hopefully they went today.

Edit.

Just checked the tracking and Royal Mail say it's making it way through their network

No cheaper than that

Title: Enchantment Under the Sea Dance
Jennifer Colourway - Edition 55 - Price: £210 + P&P
Lorraine Colourway - Edition 25 - Price: £255 + P&P

Size: 60cm x 70cm (24 x 28inch)

Just had my first buggs framed up and got to say, the quality is amazing, the colours certainly pop.

http://instagram.com/p/BOPPs_zBu87

Looks like there are now three separate threads for the same subject. I'll give precedence to the initial thread created.

When Miss Bugs first started, I dismissed them as a Paul Insect rip-off — even their choice of name seemed like a piggyback attempt.

Since then, the duo has settled into a style that feels a bit more like their own (in part, because Insect has moved on and continued to evolve). Miss Bugs' composition and palette are generally strong, but I find tiresome the manner in which they use other people's imagery. Knowing nods, granted. It just doesn't add conceptual strength.

What the many visual references do create is a muddle. In this case, they've no apparent relevance to the main image — two women embracing. Instead of complementing that theme, Colonel Sanders, Beavis & Butthead, Betty Boop and the rest detract from it. The overall work loses cohesion, becomes random, with the appropriations then serving as merely a decorative tool: They don't underpin an interesting idea; they're a gimmick so viewers can play 'I Spy'.

It's like, "Let's force the Michelin Man into this broth. While we're at it, throw in Shepard Fairey, Haring and Murakami. And some Matisse too. He's cool. Oh yeah, and what's-her-name. The crazy one, Kusama."

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In the Midst of Adolescence was a large-scale canvas shown at Victoria Miro in 2012. Any fans of the image considering a purchase? You can sleep on it first:



www.aliexpress.com/cheap/cheap-yayoi-kusama.html

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For me, the most interesting aspect of Enchantment Under the Sea Dance is the primary source photo by Norbert Schoerner, shot four years ago for the Harvey Nichols Beauty Bazaar in Liverpool. It was a strong, memorable campaign called 'Love Thyself':

...and no more prints being released by MB for at least 12 months after this one, as per their site.

The one on the left looks like noel fielding.

Got my Who Ate all the Hope this morning, so shipping wasn't so bad. But you're right, five of the seven print releases from Until September in 2014 to now, as well as all the resin pieces I've seen from them, have shared a very similar aesthetic, and from Once We Dreamt - my favourite of the series - to now they've really been very minor variations on a theme. Still, if you compare any of these releases with what they were producing four years ago, or four years before that, you can hardly accuse them of standing still.

I agree with you on some points, as you say 'the duo has settled into a style that feels a bit more like their own.' I can see the Paul Insect influence in their earlier work much more. However for me there is also progression in MB work and the concept is much stronger now for it... Their figures (unlike Paul Insect) seem heavily influenced by the work of Klimt and sometimes Egon Schiller, whereas Paul Insect's approach is more Tom Wesselmann / Philip Guston.

For me Miss Bugs is not muddled. I’ve read a few interviews where they have discussed their approach and compared it to music sampling or DJ'ing. One of their shows was called '2 many Artists' a reference to the ‘2 Many DJs’ approach to making music. This is for me what makes them unique! No one else ‘steals and remixes’ in this way. I was told that the butterfly patterns in their resin work (that show hundreds of icon figures and symbols) represents, for them, the world around us and the shows the scale and complexity of modern culture. So I guess this print patterns sets out to do something similar. For me, it feels very much the way we consume information and their work does seem to be holding up a mirror to the artworld in an internet age.

I’ve also read how they use adverting images to re-impower the model and give them a new message. With some pieces of theirs, it's easier to read their thought behind it - surgical blades (Hurst pattern) used on the Paris Hilton titled ‘Skin Deep’ or syringes used on the piece 'Beauty Treatment; even these pieces work on different levels for me.


If the work is only looked at as a single print, then I can see why you may think the work is gimmicky (and it does seem to divide people). But if you look at a whole body of work, like the use of their different materials in resin, then you start to see themes and ideas. I love MB's work and have read about their process and approach so am looking at it with different eyes. Each to their own I guess.

and sold out

Congrats! Though, feel free to rejoice in the two other existing miss bugs or dface threads. you can let loose there rather than creating a new one.

I got my "who ate all the hope" in the post today. That was enough miss Bugs excitement for me today. Well done to everyone who scored the release today