Early years Wyburn is from
Ebbw Vale,
South Wales and studied art both at school, and at the
Cardiff School of Art & Design. In 2010 he posted a YouTube video of himself creating a portrait of TV personality
Simon Cowell, made using
Marmite on toast. He was featured on the
BBC children's TV programme,
Blue Peter, He received messages of support from celebrities including singer
Katherine Jenkins and pop star
Justin Bieber.
2012–2014 In 2012, during the
News International phone hacking scandal, Wyburn's portrait of
Rupert Murdoch, made from 5,000 images of alleged phone-hacking victims, appeared on the front page of
The Guardian. Wyburn's work was also recognized as part of the
London 2012 Olympic Games under Education Relays when he held a one-off edible art exhibition, featuring British Olympians at
Bournemouth Arts College. In 2013 he entered the Austrian talent contest,
Die große Chance, finishing in the last fifteen and gaining praise from
Eurovision winner
Conchita Wurst after creating her portrait using glitter. Other international projects included
toothpaste art at the '15th International Dental Congress' in
Istanbul, portraits of
Felix Ketchup fans using the product, a performance on the Spanish version of ''
Don't Stop Me Now and appearing on a short segment in Sky Portrait Artist of the Year''. Following the death of
Margaret Thatcher in 2013, Wyburn created a portrait of her using coal.
Commercial commissions Brands such as Marmite,
Bic, the Famous Company,
Oral-B,
Costa,
Starbucks,
Morrisons and
Hovis have commissioned Wyburn. His work has been praised by celebrity admirers such as
Perez Hilton. In 2014 Wyburn exhibited at the
Cardiff Story Museum. Previous exhibitions include Barnabas Arts House and
Queens Arcade, Cardiff. In 2015 Wyburn created a portrait of
Princess Charlotte of Cambridge using 1,000
babygrows, a portrait of
Welsh rugby international Adam Jones using mud, and for
Father's Day pizzas featuring five famous fathers:
David Beckham,
Tom Fletcher,
Gary Barlow Simon Cowell and
Marvin Humes, in partnership with Morrisons supermarket. Wyburn describes himself as having a "Warhol-like obsession" with
pop culture and the notion of celebrity, and cites
Warhol,
Chuck Close and
Vik Muniz as his main influences. In an interview with the BBC, Wyburn said of his own work: "It is current to current affairs and current to pop culture. I don't see why that should not be shown in a gallery, in the
Tate Gallery or the
National Gallery" adding "I do strive to be taken seriously. It would be nice to get that sort of recognition." After learning that he was to be included on the GCSE art curriculum in Wales, he said the possibility of being mentioned in the same lesson as Warhol was "mind-blowing". Wyburn has also been included on the website for ''
Ripley's Believe It or Not!'' franchise, and on
Facebook with videos such as
Eminem created with
spaghetti.
2015–2018 In 2015 his book
Not That Kind of Art, featuring 80 of his works, was published by Candy Jar. In December 2015 Wyburn created portraits of
Francis Rossi and
Rick Parfitt, from the rock group
Status Quo, out of matchsticks, inspired by their 1969 song "
Pictures of Matchstick Men". He also created images of
Star Wars characters from food products, including lead characters
Rey (
Daisy Ridley) made from
tomato puree and
Finn (
John Boyega) made from
tikka paste. In 2016, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the
Techniquest science museum, Wyburn created a portrait of scientist
Albert Einstein using thousands of
Smarties. He also painted a portrait of actor
Gene Wilder, using chocolate, as a tribute to the late comic actor. To raise awareness of
World AIDS Day on Dec 1st 2016, Wyburn created a red glitter portrait of singer &
Queen icon,
Freddie Mercury, who died of the disease in 1991. In 2017, the Welsh language channel
S4C, aired seven segments featuring seven artworks being created by Wyburn. These included a painting of
Gareth Bale with his feet,
Sam Warburton with mud,
Zoella with glitter and
Johnny Depp as
Captain Jack Sparrow created using sand and seaweed on
Barry Island beachfront. In May Wyburn created an image of
Skepta for the British music company The Famous Company by using images of unsigned artists from around the world. In November 2017 Wyburn painted a picture of
Jesus using a
sausage roll and ketchup, in response to an advertisement for
Greggs which showed a sausage roll in place of the holy infant on their advent calendars. On New Year's Eve 2017, ITV aired a panel show hosted by
Fern Britton titled
A Right Royal Quiz which featured a cameo appearance from Wyburn, showcasing some of his royal portraits including a new artwork of The Queen using pizza. This was shortly followed by an ad campaign by Dr Beckmann, a cleaning product company which commissioned the artist to use its
carpet stain remover, to make a image of newly engaged
Prince Harry and
Meghan Markle by removing stains from a dirty carpet. In 2018 Wyburn created an image of the
Mona Lisa in snow at
Roath Park in Cardiff, alongside portraits of
Jon Snow &
Idina Menzel which were featured as a global
Twitter ‘moment’. In April Wyburn performed live art at Wales
Comic Con weekend where he created several portraits of the special guests, including actor
Andrew Scott. In July Wyburn created a portrait of
Aneurin Bevan during the 70th anniversary week of the
National Health Service. The artwork, Wyburn's largest to date, took some eight and a half hours to complete and was made out of local materials, including 374 kg of garden soil and 74 kg of stone dust. In the same year Wyburn partnered with home improvement store
B&Q to recreate a replica of the
Mona Lisa using leaves and a
Bosch leaf blower. Celebrity endorsements in 2018 included
Melanie B and
Mariah Carey who tweeted saying she "loves this" in reply to his portrait of her. ==Recent work==