Called an "interdisciplinary gospel immortalist" by Kembra Pfahler and “a photographer, artist, musician and diva” by the Los Angeles Times, Tyler Matthew Oyer is an artist, writer, organizer, musician and educator based between Los Angeles and Europe. Their work reconsiders the past as something not gone, but as material and ideas that live in and through us, shaping how we see ourselves and our world.
I UTILIZE IDOL WORSHIP IN ORDER TO LOCATE MYSELF IN THE DEVASTATED CRISIS-SOCIETY AND TO IMAGINE NEW PRACTICES BEYOND VIOLENT DOMINATION. NON BIOLOGICAL INTERACTIONS WITH AND CONJURINGS OF LIVING, DEAD, AND CELESTIAL BEINGS UNFOLDS IN IMAGERY, MUSIC, PERFORMANCE, SCULPTURE AND WRITING ACROSS MULTIPLE GENRES. RATHER THAN A FOCUS ON IDENTITY POLITICS, THIS IS A PROJECT OF HUMAN CONNECTION, "CONSTELLATIONS" AND ARCHIVE BUILDING FOR PRESENT AND FUTURE GENERATIONS.
Tyler’s work has been presented at MoMA PS1, REDCAT, The Getty Museum, dOCUMENTA (13), Hammer Museum, MOCA Los Angeles, The Broad Museum, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kunstnernes Hus Oslo, Munch Museum, Volskbühne Berlin, Ceremonia Mexico City, Art Basel Miami Beach, Bergen Kunstall, Rogaland Kunstsenter, Shedhalle Zürich, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, High Desert Test Sites, Highways Performance Space, Human Resources Los Angeles, Silencio Paris, Ekebergparken Oslo, Lukiškiu Kalėjimas Vilnius, and the Orange County Museum of Art.
They have premiered original works of performance including CALLING ALL DIVAS, GONE FOR GOLD, Shimmy Shake Earthquake, La Bola Negra, 100 Years of Noise: Beyoncé is ready to receive you now, VENUS, and VENUS 2.0 as well as an adaptation of Ron Vawter’s Roy Cohn / Jack Smith.
In addition to their work as a visual and performing artist, they have released original music albums: RELEASE DELUXE (2017), NO TEMPLE (2020), RETEMPLE (2020), TENDERNESS (2022), BERLIN ALIEN (2023), BERLIN ALIEN: DEEP SPACE DEEP THROAT (2023), and VENUS (2025).
Their feature film adaptation of Charles Ludlam's Conquest of the Universe or When Queens Collide premiered in 2017 and is the first moving-image adaptation of Ludlam’s work.
Tyler is the founder of tir journal, an online platform for queer, feminist, and underrepresented voices.
Their photography has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Document Journal, Interview Magazine, Vogue Poland, i-D, GQ, Sicky Magazine, Office Magazine, Paper Magazine, Gayletter, Behind the Blinds, V MAN, and Fucking Young. They have worked photographically with artists and brands including Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Thom Browne, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Eckhaus Latta, Luar, Palomo Spain, Varon, Zana Bayne, Isabel Marant, Ed Hardy, Alan Crocetti, Kembra Pfahler, Lykke Li, The Marias, TR/ST, and FKA Twigs.
Tyler received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2012 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2024. They have offered workshops and lectures at CalArts, Bard College, Occidental College, University of Southern California Santa Barbara, University of California San Diego, Penn State University, Southern Exposure, and Grand Central Art Center.
Their work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (NY), Los Angeles Contemporary Archive, Nevada Museum of Art, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona and prominent collections worldwide.
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photo: Paul Mpagi Sepuya
painting: Constance Tenvik