Jennifer Angus (b. 1961) was born in Edmonton, Alberta. She received her BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work takes inspiration from the Victorian era, an age of travel, exploration, scientific discovery, and the dawning of photography. It is during this time that the general public was introduced to the natural world through a large number of educational publications in which various species of wildlife from insects to elephants were anthropomorphized so as to have greater appeal. For the past ten years, Jennifer Agnus has pulled from that line of Victorian inspiration as she has created installations composed of insects pinned directly to the wall in repeating patterns, referencing both textiles and wallpaper. A tension is created by the beauty one observes in the pattern, and the apprehension we feel toward insects. Jennifer Angus says her work explores ideas of home and comfort, even as it alludes to the unseen world of dust mites, germs and bacteria, both friendly and not.

Jennifer Angus has exhibited her work internationally throughout Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Spain. She has been the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. In 2016, Angus mounted a larger-than-life installation in the Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. as part of it’s inaugural exhibition after a major renovation. Jennifer Angus is currently a professor in the Design Studies department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.