Thierry Gillieaux, known as Tigi Van Gil, was born in 1966 in Brussels, Belgium. After studying at EPHEC, where he obtained a degree in marketing (1987–1989), he moved to Paris in 1991 to pursue fashion studies. He enrolled at ESMOD, graduating in 1993.

Initially working as a fashion designer and model, he soon turned to photography, which became central to his artistic path. He further developed his practice at the Agnès Varda School of Photography and Visual Techniques, from which he graduated in 1998.

He began his professional career with a campaign for three women’s fragrances by Givenchy Oblique (Play, Forward,and Rewind). At the same time, he collaborated with numerous magazines, worked as a portrait photographer for modeling agencies, produced fashion catalogs, and created music videos as well as advertising projects.

After several years of intensive travel and work — particularly in New York, a city that left a lasting energetic imprint on him — he returned to Belgium. In October 2009, he presented his first solo exhibition at his Brussels studio, the “ Tigi’s Lab Factory,” and published his first photographic book, Superposure, edited by Michel Husson.

A photographer and multimedia artist, Tigi has developed a universe that is fantastical, urban, and contemporary, regardless of the medium or technique employed. His work explores a realm where imagination meets technology, abstraction, and sensation — a slowing down of expressionism or, conversely, an acceleration of surrealism.

His work has been exhibited internationally across Europe, China, and the United States, in galleries such as Visus Gallery, Vogelsang Art Gallery (Cube Art Fair), and Chase Edwards Gallery, present in the Hamptons and Palm Beach.

He currently lives and works in Brussels in his new creative space, the “Be in Love Sphere Factory.” Entirely conceived around his concept of the sphere—his artistic signature—this unique place functions as both a creative laboratory and a space for sharing and encounters. Designed for his family, friends, collectors, and galleries, it brings people together around a table or near the bar, between an exterior opening onto a Japanese garden and terrace, and an interior where a highly boudoir-like artistic atmosphere unfolds in every detail. The walls tell his life story through the art he has created and displayed.

Today, through writing, Tigi extends and deepens the artistic universe that runs through all of his work, exploring imagination, transformation, and the search for meaning. He expands his creative field with the publication of his first novel, The Field of Dreams, published by Ynoma Editions. This work unfolds in three volumes: The Child of the Heights, The Creator of the Depths, and The Being of Light, the latter scheduled for release in 2025.

The Field of Dreams is not merely a book, but a journey. An exploration of buried emotions, past lives, wounded loves, and silent rebirths. It is the quest of a man who, through art, memory, and spirituality, dares to strip away all masks to rediscover the purest light — that of love and truth.

An intimate, vibrant, and universal voyage, where each reader can recognize their own scars and be reborn in turn. More than a novel, The Field of Dreams is a bridge between heart and consciousness — a reminder that our dreams are the trace of what our soul has never forgotten.