The work of Willem de Rooij (Beverwijk, Netherlands, 1969) is determined by the selection and combination of images in diverse media, such as sculpture, film, photography and text. His work analyzes the conventions of presentation and representation and assesses the tension between socio-political and autonomous image production. Where early film installations already had a sculptural quality, de Rooij’s most recent exhibitions became works of art in their own right, often incorporating found materials or appropriated works of art. De Rooij studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Akademie in Amsterdam from 1990-95 and at the Rijksakademie from 1997-98. He has been a tutor at De Ateliers in Amsterdam since 2002 and Professor of Fine Arts at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main since 2006 – he lives and works in Berlin. De Rooij worked and exhibited together with Jeroen de Rijke untill 2006, followed by exhibitions at K 21, Düsseldorf (2007) and at the Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna (2008). He received a Robert Fulton Fellowship at Harvard University in 2004 and represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 2005. His works are in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, MUMOK, Vienna, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Recent solo exhibitions were mounted at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (2010) and at Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York (2011). In 2011 De Rooij participates in group exhibitions at the Kröller Möller Museum, Otterloo, the Centro Galego de Arte de Arte Contemporanea, Santiago de Compostella, and PS1, New York. A solo exhibition at the Kunstverein Munich and a new installation at Bentheim Castle, Gemany will open in January resp. May 2012.

‘Intolerance’, installationview, Willem de Rooij, Nationalgalerie Berlin 2010