DENNIS TYFUS: PAINTING BETWEEN DREAMS AND WAKEFULNESS
September 2025, Rome
DENNIS TYFUS "Oi on Canvas" at Tim Van Laere Gallery marks the Belgian multimedia artist's first public venture into painting, extending his improvisational practice onto canvas with characteristic irreverence. Known for his genre-defying work across music, performance, and installation, Tyfus approaches painting with the same unfiltered energy that defines his underground sensibility.
These works emerge from hypnagogic states – moments between sleep and wakefulness – creating compositions that appear narrative yet resist clear interpretation. Drawing from influences ranging from the Situationists to Mike Kelley, the paintings maintain Tyfus's signature balance between absurdity and poetry. Each canvas operates as a portal between the familiar and the uncanny, offering fragments of overheard dreams rather than complete stories.
What distinguishes these pieces is their deliberate slipperiness. They invite viewers not to decode but to inhabit these painted moments, where intimate gestures coexist with estrangement and quiet humour shares space with disquieting undertones. Rather than treating painting as sacred territory, Tyfus transforms it into another stage for his anarchic charm, confirming his ability to maintain his essential character while exploring new creative territories.
Oi on Canvas by Dennis Tyfus is on view at Tim Van Laere Gallery Rome until the 8th of November, 2025
Left You Cannot Always Have Fun / Yes I Can’t!, 2025, oil on canvas
Right Some Things Are Self-Evident, but They Become More Evident When They Are Said Aloud, 2025, oil on canvas
Left Do You Really Think the Birds Are That Stupid, 2025, oil on canvas
Right Fruit: Forgotten Vegetables, 2025, oil on canvas
Left Afterparty without Bluetooth, 2025, oil on canvas
Right Then Title It if It’s Untitled!, 2025, oil on canvas
Text by the editorial team
All images Courtesy Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp - Rome