Ayres was born in Hastings, Great-Britain in 1965 and finished his studies at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 1991. It was during his time at Rijksakademie that Ayres started painting his text-based paintings using his now idiosyncratic typeface. As in the work of artists of his generation such as Ryan McGinness and Christopher Wool, Ayres’ work is celebrated for the deconstructive use of language; through recontextualisation and isolation of words and symbols his paintings explore the workings and limitations of language.

Tim Ayres lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Among institutions and galleries that have shown his work are Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, Galerie Markus Richter, PM/AM, PS Projectspace and Stigter van Doesburg. Ayres’ work has been included in numerous institutions and public collections such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, SCHUNCK Heerlen, AKZO Nobel Art Foundation and The New York Public Library.