Paul Insect

Paul Insect’s (English, b. 1971) bright, multi-textured collages feature cropped portraits, patterned color fields, benday dots, and decorative elements such as diamond dust and glitter. The U.K.-born and -based artist, who prefers to keep his true identity anonymous, first rose to prominence as part of the “insect” artist collective, which was active between 1996 and 2005. Insect’s next big break arrived in 2007, when Damien Hirst reportedly bought out the artist’s entire solo show before it even opened at London’s Lazarides Gallery. Hirst is not alone in his fandom—Insect has exhibited at a number of galleries in New York and London, and his work was included in Banksy’s 2015 pop-up exhibition “Dismaland” and Roger Gastman’s 2018 traveling street art survey “Beyond the Streets.”