Tobias Thaens (b. 1999, NL) is a painter who graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the AKI Academy for Art & Design, Enschede, the Netherlands, in 2021, completed his residency at DeAteliers, Amsterdam, in 2023 and received the Royal Award for Modern Painting in 2024. Thaens’ paintings explore the shifting relationship between form and function. In his work, boundaries soften and merge, suggesting that things are rarely fixed or singular. His images move between clarity and ambiguity, reflecting an interest in how forms appear, dissolve, and reappear.

Drawing inspiration from both nature and culture,  from animals using camouflage to the colour of lipstick, Thaens looks at how identity and surface are constructed and perceived. His work often evokes an androgynous, fluid world in which bodies and environments subtly change their skin, pattern, or tone. Rather than escaping the everyday, he works through it, finding intensity and strangeness within the mundane experience. By focusing on these small shifts and layered surfaces, Thaens invites viewers to look longer and perhaps reconsider what they think they see.