Trained in Animation Film at KASK Ghent, Jef Staut brings the logic of hand-drawn animation into his paintings. His sketchbooks are a starting point, where forms are repeatedly drawn, rearranged and set in motion across pages. His visual vocabulary draws on the bold colours and simplified shapes of toys, puzzles and boardgames, transforming familiar forms into something new.

The expression the tail wagging the dog describes a situation where a seemingly minor element begins to control the whole. In Staut’s paintings, patterns, shapes and shadows similarly shift roles. Nothing is quite unfamiliar, yet nothing behaves entirely as expected.

Thinking in sequences and repetition, Staut builds his imagaes through constant rearrangement. Forms move, disappear, overlap and return, creating a playful tension between order and interruption. Traces of the sketchbook remain visible in the paintings: smudges, alterations, overlaps and layers that behave almost like stacked sheets of paper.

Gradually, Staut's forms edge toward an invented alphabet — convincing enough to make the eye search for meaning, without ever settling into one. Rather than explaining what an image represents, Staut allows it to develop its own rules. His paintings can be seen as animation made static, or as painting that still behaves as though it could move.

And when the logic of the image becomes strong enough, the tail begins to wag the dog.

You can find the available artworks below and more information about the artist here.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have —I’m happy to assist!

Doris Vanistendael: doris@soongallery.be | +32 494900953