jess bugler
My practice is based on the exploration of complex ideas and contemporary experiences through interweaving traditional print processes with modern technology.
Previous work includes a series on the War in Syria, where I worked to illuminate the effect of modern wars viewed in glimpses through screens. In another body of work, Memory States, I explored the impact of trauma on memory. It aimed to evoke the extraordinariness of the traumatic narrative. Each piece, a different exploration of a state of memory. Attempts to convey something ungraspable and incomplete.
My latest series of work, created during my residency at Spike Island, is called SHARP LINES. It is a series of pieces which again interrogate the impact of trauma. It explores Auden’s “nuances of damage” and the fragility of our sense of self. Each piece attempts to capture a sensation, played out through the repeating metaphor of pollarded trees. This work uses the material qualities of print: - repetition; surface; layers to realise these portraits. Unpicking the processes and exploiting the fragility of the prints and plates themselves. It encompasses both traditional processes in wood engraving, linocut and drypoint and modern technology in sublimation and laser cutting.
JESS BUGLER
AWARDS
Elected as member of the Royal Cambrian Academy, 2021.
Winner of Herefordshire Art Week 2021
Winner of the Intaglio Printmakers prize, National Original Print Exhibition, 2018.
Winner of Peter Reddick Relief Printing Bursary, Spike Print Studio, Bristol, 2017.
Winner of the Hawthorn prize at the Flourish Award, West Yorkshire Print Studio, 2017.
Prize winner in Galeri Open, Caernarfon, Wales, 2017.
Winner of the Printmaking Today prize at the National Original Print exhibition 2014
Winner of the Regional Print Centre award at the National Original Print exhibition 2014 www.regionalprintcentre.co.uk Shortlisted for the Printmaking Today prize at the International Print Biennale, Newcastle www.printmakingtoday.co.uk
Winner of the “People’s Choice” award in “FRESHLY PRESSED” The Printmakers Council exhibition, London, 2014. www.printmakerscouncil.com
RESIDENCIES/SYMPOSIUMS
Speaker on Reflective Panel at IMPACT 12 - International Printmaking Conference 2022
Keynote Speaker at The Print Symposium 2020 - The expanded field of Printmaking.
Peter Reddick Bursary Award residency, Spike Print Studio, Bristol. 2017-18.
Stwidio Maelor residency - Machynlleth, Wales, 2017.
PUBLICITY
Cloudscape in Printmaking Today 2023
Features in Printmaking Today, 2021.
EXHIBITIONS
2023
Project Babel - Galleria Ratamo (Jyväskylä, Finland)
ALONE TOGETHER, Oriel Mon, North Wales
ALONE TOGETHER, MAKE Southwest, Devon
ALONE TOGETHER, Canwood Gallery, Herefordshire.
Contemporary Printmaking Prize Exhibition, Fenditton Gallery, Fenditton, Cambridgeshire.
2022
Enclosures, Haymakers Gallery, Hay-on-wye, Wales.
ALONE TOGETHER, Centrespace, Bristol as part of IMPACT 12.
Exposition Internationale D’Estampes Contemporaines - Artplus, Perigieux, France.
New Members Exhibition, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy.
Paper After All, touring Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy; Paper, Manchester and Saul Hay Gallery, Manchester.
The Pull of the Print, Printmakers Council Exhibition, Linden Hall Studio, Kent
2021
Print International 2021, Ty Pawb, Wrexham.
H-art winners exhibition, Old Mayor's Parlour, Hereford
Unprecedented, OVADA, Oxford.
2019
AR DROWTHY / BRINK - Oriel Mon, Anglesey, North Wales.
Print International 2019 - Ty Pawb, Wrexham, North Wales
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair 2019, London.
2018
· Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London.
· SHARP LINES, Peter Reddick Bursary solo exhibition, Spike Island Print, Bristol.
· National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside, London.
· MEMORY STATES, solo exhibition, The Courtyard, Hereford, England.
· Spike Print Open Studios, Bristol, England.
2017
· EDGE, Art and Technology, Pontio, Bangor, Wales.
· Flourish Award, West Yorkshire Print Studio, Mirfield, England.
· Galeri Open Exhibition, Caernarfon, Wales.
· “Noise of Our Time” Pontio Arts Centre. Bangor University. Wales.
· Printmaker’s Council. Scarborough Museum and Art Gallery.
2016
• IMPRESS' 16 Printmaking Festival. Gloucester. March 2016.
2015
• The Royal West of England Academy 163rd Annual Open Exhibition, Bristol.
• The Masters - Relief Prints, The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Bankside Gallery, London. November 2015. www.re-printmakers.com
• 50 years of Artists Prints, The Printmakers Council, Bankside Gallery, London. November 2015. www.printmakerscouncil.com
• Caffi Celf, Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno, Wales. April - July 2015
2014
· Neo:Printprize 2014, gallery 22, the market place, Bolton, 28th August - 2nd November www.neoartists.co.uk
• National Original Print Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London. 16th-26th September 2014. www.nationalprint.org
• International Print Biennale, Newcastle, England. www.internationalprintbiennale.org.uk/artists/jess-bugler
PUBLICATIONS
Review of Ar Drothwy/Brink in https://www.walesartsreview.org/exhibition-brink-at-oriel-mon/
Feature in THE PRINTMAKERS COUNCIL at 50 book, 2016
Interview in PRINTMAKING TODAY, 2015.
Article on lino print technique in PRINTMAKING TODAY, 2014
CURATION
2017
· EDGE, Art and Technology, Pontio, Bangor, Wales
TEACHING
• HE Print Workshop leader, Hereford College of Art, 2017 to current day.
• Tutor Printmaking for Certificate Fine Art, Bangor University - 2016
• Workshops including those at Hereford College of Art, The Regional Print Centre,Wrexham and Anglesey Arts Forum.
EDUCATION
• 1st Class BA Honours Fine Art – Bangor University, 2017
• Professional Graduate Certificate in Education University of South Wales. 2018