The Berlin-based artist blends acrylic painting, plasticine sculpting, and digital art to create his hapless, wobbly 3D characters. Often strangely proportioned and dressed in awkwardly bright clothing, they stumble through hyperreal worlds with a gentle, humming clumsiness, subject to the messy, real-world laws of physics. Dybus’s messy spectacles were forged in a deliberate pivot. After graduating from art university with what he calls “sad little black and white paintings,” he made a sharp turn, asking himself: why not communicate life’s complexities with humour?

He soon began creating layered watercolour illustrations before teaching himself to master 3D. Always funny but tinged with melancholy, Dybus creates space for failure and human connection in the digital realm. His eclectic influences range from the stagecraft of German theatre to the janky logic of Super Mario 64. It’s a perspective that has led to commissions from publications like The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, and The Atlantic, and resulted in exhibitions in cities from Berlin and Palma de Mallorca to Seoul and Moscow.