BIO and CV
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Bio
Connie Dekker (Rotterdam, 1960) creates work about the experience of time – not as chronology, but as a layered presence of memories, absences, and expectations.
In her installations, performances, drawings, and videos, she transforms repetitive actions into meditative investigations of what waiting means, what remembering does, and how absence takes shape.
Dekker grew up in Bruinisse, Zeeland, and studied sculpture at the Academy St. Joost in Breda. During an artist residency at Casa degli Artisti in Milan (1987), guided by Luciano Fabro and Hidetoshi Nagasawa, she developed her interest in process-based, time-bound artistic practices.
After graduating from the Rijksakademie Amsterdam in 1990, she began creating large-scale embroidery installations that reinterpreted traditional needlework techniques as conceptual explorations of temporality. Her repetitive patterns create spaces in which time becomes palpable. This approach culminated in a series of performances in Italy, including “Lo soffia il cielo, cosí” (2003) at the Rocca of Carmignano, where poetry, movement, and embroidery came together in a ritual of anticipation.
Since 2000, Dekker has expanded her practice to include drawing, photography, and video, with the theme of time as layered experience remaining central. In “Into the Trees,” old trees become carriers of forgotten stories. These weathered, pollarded trees – the last witnesses of a vanishing world – offer shelter to hermits returning from our collective dreams. In their hollows and crevices awakens what we thought we had lost.
Her most personal work, “The Garden of Speech,” is an ongoing embroidery project in which she stitches drawings by her deceased father onto textile. Each stitch is simultaneously a remembrance and a farewell, a way of inhabiting loss by slowly, repetitively giving it form. Through this patient, repetitive labor, the work becomes both elegy and conversation – a way of remaining in dialogue with her father through the act of embroidering.
Dekker’s work is held in public and private collections in the Netherlands and beyond. She lives and works near Turin, Italy.
Art Exhibitions, Presentations, Collaborations
BOOKS
100 x 100 Libri d’artisti, seconda edizione
BOLOGNA, Sincresis at BOOKS, mamBO, 2025
EMPOLI, Sincresis, 2024
Sculpture 5×5 cm
Preziose miniature
FLORENCE, Gallery Cartavetra, November 12 – November 15, 2025
ROME, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, September 10 – October 9, 2025
PALERMO, Historical Archive, Sala Pollaci Nuccio, 2024
Performance and Installation
Teatro Nero 2
9.30 am – 18.30 pm
Rotonda del Talucchi
Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti
Via Accademia Alberinta 6
Photography
From Cajeta to Circe,
between healing and magic
GAETA, Pinacoteca Comunale, 2023
The Municipal Art Gallery hosts an exhibition specially designed and curated by the non-profit organization, Wind Mill, for the city of Gaeta.
In Greek and Roman mythology Gaeta is linked to Cajeta, nurse of Aeneas, mentioned by Virgil in the Aeneid and to Circe described in Homer’s Odyssey.
These two figures represent a metaphor of the various aspects of female stereotypes. The artists have been invited to create art work that investigates these myths, which represent a set of prejudices still strongly rooted in our society today.
Artists a.o.:
Drawing
La cura di sè
EMPOLI, Sincresis, 2023
In today’s fast-paced world, many young people struggle with feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and uncertainty. Social media can make one feel disconnected from their true self. The invited artists work on female identity and to give voice, through creative expression, to own interiority.
Artists a.o.:
Press
Drawing
Home. Lessico per la vita di coppia
EMPOLI, Sincresis, 2022
Il racconta del lockdown visto dalle coppie. In collaborazione con l’Associazione Windmill.
Photography
100 x 100 Libri d’artisti
EMPOLI, Sincresis, 2022
Preview with the books on display at the Marino Marini Museum in Florence followed by the exhibition 100X100 Artist’s Books at Association SINCRESIS.
Embroidery
Raccontami di te
FLORENCE, Fritelli Arte Contemporanea, 2021
“Raccontami di te” is a project by Stefania Balestri. All artists were asked by Stefania to send her a favourite piece of work, in tissue, for her book “Raccontami di te”. I did show a part of the work used in the performance Waiting in 1999, Swan embroideries on cotton.
Artists:
Video made by Fabrizio Farrone
Drawing
Are you at home?
COMMENTRY, Espace Culturel La Pléiade, 2020
The series of large drawings show big trees rooted in rocks. Rock caves and tree hollows are inhabited by hermits surrounded by their few and favourite belongings.
Kindly supported by Fonds Kwadraat Nederland.
Embroidery
L’altra metà del cielo
MONSUMMANO TERME, Museum Mac’n, 2020
Embroidery
Appunti sul paesaggio
SAN GIOVANNI VALDARNO, Casa Masaccio Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea, 2018
Le sale di Casa Masaccio ospitano un percorso dedicato alla capacità dell’artista di rappresentare il mondo esterno: una rilettura dell’idea di paesaggio naturale, di spazio urbano e architettonico attraverso le categorie di memoria, racconto e ricordo personale.
Recenti acquisizioni della Collezione Comunale
A cura di Serena Trinchero, artisti: Rosa Aiello, Emanuele Becheri, Vincenzo Cabiati, Gaetano Cunsolo, Davide D’Amelio, Connie Dekker, Daniela De Lorenzo, Elena El Asmar, Lek M. Gjeloshi, Federica Glauso, Carlo Guaita, Andrea Kvas, Francesco Lauretta, Irene Lupi, Manuela Mancioppi, Paolo Meoni, Janet Mullarney, Jacopo Rinaldi, Andrea Santarlasci, Maitree Siriboon, Luca Staccioli.
Video screening
Arcopal Lullaby at Fest Miden
KALAMATA, Railway Park, 2016
Miden participates in Kalamata Street Festival presenting 20 videoart works from 11 countries, in two screening programs. The first program, entitled VJ (curated by Margarita Stavraki) presents 13 videos of different aesthetic forms, that deal with the human entity and highlight scenes and objects of everyday life.
Embroidery
Rethinking the Medium: the Phantom of the Drawing
SAN GIOVANNI VALDARNO, Casa Masaccio, Oct. 17 > Nov. 15, 2015
video screening
Icastica, Little Italy
AREZZO, 2015
Barzagli hosts three artists within his installation Little Italy: Tiziana de Felice, Francesco Benedetti and Connie Dekker.
‘The Dutch artist Connie Dekker shows a video projection entitled “Etude – Arcopal Lullaby – voor Marieke”. Connie Dekker works in Italy since the late ’80s where she was invited to the ‘Casa degli Artisti’ in Milan, established by the artist Luciano Fabro since 1978. From here friendships started with artists of her generation such as Liliana Moro. Connie Dekker, worked in Italy for most of the 90s. We could say that in her work there’s a hint of Italian neorealism.’ [Massimo Barzagli]
Drawing
Doppio Concentrato
FLORENCE, Museumnight, 2015
Photography
Opid Hus
SKAGASTRÖND, NES Air, 2012
Photography
Moving
PRATO, Dryphoto Arte Contemporanea, May 18 – June 21, 2011
Artists:
Luigi Ghirri, Olivo Barbieri, Guido Guidi, Vittore Fossati, Vincenzo Castella, Andrea Abati, Dennis Marsico, Thomas Ruff, Francesca Woodman, Toshio Shibata, Sakiko Nomura, Kazuko Wakayama, Hiroto Fujimoto, Marco Signorini, Fabio Casati, Marco Baroncelli, Filippo Maggia, Carmelo Nicosia, Paolo Bernabini, Sislej Xhafa, Shao Yinong & Muchen, Shimabuku, Connie Dekker, Gea Casolaro, Zheng Guogu, Giovanni Ozzola, Robert Pettena, Margherita Verdi, Rita Linz, Tancredi Mangano, Michael Schmidt, Nobuyoshi Araki, Renate Aller, Andreoni e Fortugno, Natalie Magnan, Margot Pilz, Alessandro Mencarelli, Stefania Balestri, Mariette Schiltz, Stefano Boccalini, Paola Di Bello
video screening
About the utopian display
SAN GIOVANNI VALDARNO, Casa Masaccio, platform 10 VIDEO, 2010
Artists:
Yael Davids / Face, Seila Kameric / Dream House, Ange Leccia / La Mer, Paolo Meoni / Bound, Robert Pettena / One Drop, Mark Lewis / Algonquin Park, North Circular, Farid Rahimi / Fujii, Sophie Whettnall / Over the Sea,Shadow Boxing Kan Xua / In Focus. Out Focus, 100 Times, Cyprien Gaillard / Real Remnant of Fictive War V, Guido van der Werve / Nummer acht, Everything is going to be alright, Michael von Ausswolff –Thomas Nordanstad / Hashima, Al Qasr / Bahriyah Oasis, Sigurdur Gudjonsson / Bleak, Connie Dekker / Zeeland
Drawing
Artisti Amici
ROME, Sala 1, June 15 – July 2, 2009
Artists:
Laura Facchini, Francesco Narduzzi, Jack Sal, Connie Dekker
Photography
De Soto, esplora te stesso
EMPOLI, Spazio d’Arte D’A, 2007
Artists:
Renate Aller, Stefania Balestri, Connie Dekker, Martina Della Valle, Rachel Morellet, Elisabetta Scarpini, Donatella Spaziani, Margherita Verdi
Video screening
Io so dove non sei
MONSUMMANO TERME, Museum MAC’N, 2007
Performance
Lo soffia il cielo, cosí
MONSUMMANO TERME, Museum MAC’N, 2007
Installation, embroidery
Misure del Tempo
MONSUMMANO TERME, Museum MAC’N, 2006
Artists:
Emanuele Becheri, Antonio Catelani, Fabio Cresci, Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, L. Addo Trinci
Curators Giovanna Uzzani, Marco Giori
Photography
Spread in Prato
PRATO, Dryphoto Arte Contemporanea, 2004
Artists:
Nakahira Takuma, Carmelo Nicosia, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Armin Linke, Isaac Julien, Sissi, Tomoko Yoneda, Rosa Rossa, Italo Zuffi, Adi Nes, Gil Marco Shani, Rona Yefman, Michal Chelbin, Hiro Yumita, Michelangelo Consani, Donatella Di Cicco; Souvenirs d’un pays lointain: Gruppo A12, Connie Dekker, Luca Malgeri, Herbert Reyes, Addo Lodovico Trinci; Film: Bethan Huws, Mark Lewis, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Surasi Kusolwong
Curator Pier Luigi Tazzi
Video screening
Sonde
PISTOIA, Museum Palazzo Fabroni, 2004
Artists:
Marco Bagnoli, Antonio Catelani, Loris Cecchini, Vittorio Corsini, Carlo Guaita, Robert Pettena, Paolo Parisi, Remo Salvadori and others
Curator Bruno Corá
Performance
Moto a luogo
CARMIGNANO, The Rocca, Gallery Schema, 2003
Artists:
Massimo Barzagli – Luisa Cortesi, David Casini, Connie Dekker, Daniela de Lorenzo, Paolo Fabiani, Liliana Moro, Paolo Parisi, Bernhard Rüdiger
Curator Saretto Cincinelli
Photography
Uscita Pistoia
PISTOIA, Gallery Spazio A, 2003
Artists:
Giuseppe Alleruzzo, Marco Bagnoli, Vittorio Corsini, Fabio Cresci, Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, Carlo Guaita, Alessandro Mencaralli, Maurizio Nannucci, Robert Pettena, Remo Salvadori, L. Addo Trinci and others
Curator Giuseppe Alleruzzo
Performance
Abitanti
PISTOIA, Palazzo Fabroni, 2001
Artists:
Antonio Catelani, Vittorio Corsini, Carlo Guaita, Massimo Barzagli, Paolo Parisi, Alessandra Sandrini, Robert Pettena, Loris Cecchini, Remo Salvadori, Marco Bagnoli, Connie Dekker and others.
Curator Bruno Corà
Installation, embroidery
Deep in the water
FLORENCE, Headquarters Patrizia Pepe, 2001
Solo exhibition
Installation, embroidery
Glaubst du…
PRATO, Gallery Dryphoto, 2001
Solo exhibition
Installation, Embroidery
Sans Papier
AMSTERDAM, Foundation Het Consortium, 2000
Artists:
Walter van Broekhuizen, Kinke Kooi, Jans Muskee, Serge van Onnen, Roland Sohier, Joris Wille, Connie Dekker
Performance
Waiting
Foundation Caesuur, Middelburg, 1999
Solo exhibition
Performance
(R)entrée
Foundation De Paraplufabriek, Nijmegen, 1999
Group Exhibition
SITESPECIFIC INSTALLATION
BATTAGLIE
Piazza Landini, Pratovecchio, 1997
Artists:
Massimo Barzagli, Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, Joris Wille
Curator Paolo Fabiani
SITESPECIFIC INSTALLATION
Casa mia è casa tua
Gallery Margiacchi, Arezzo, 1997
Artists:
Massimo Barzagli, Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, Joris Wille
VIDEO
Incestous
Thread Waxing Space, New York, 1996
Proton ICA, Amsterdam, 1996
Artists:
1 minute video presentations of artists
A project by Tiong Ang
Installation, Embroidery
Tell me what time…
Gallery Gentili, Florence, 1996
Solo exhibition
Installation, Embroidery
Borduren 2000
Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden, 1994
Bergkerk, Deventer, 1994
Artists:
Christine en Irene Hohenbüchler, Arnoud Holleman, Antoniëtta Peeters, Berend Strik, Anna Verweij- Verschuure, Colette Whiten, Connie Dekker
Curator Doris Wintgens
Installation, Embroidery
From time to time
Castello di Rivara, Rivara, 1993
Artists:
Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, Eulalia Valldosera
Curator Saretto Cincinelli
Installation, Embroidery
Wiegelied
Foundation Hooghuis, Arnhem, 1992
Solo exhibition
Installation, Embroidery
Prothesen
Gallery Nouvelles Images, Den Haag, 1993
Artists:
Tong Ang, Connie Dekker, Jurriaan van Hall, Carolien Schouten, Michiel Voet, Joris Wille, e.a.
Curator Tiong Ang
Installation, embroidery
Un luogo da nessuna parte
palestra Ex-Gil, Montevarchi, 1991
Artists:
Isabel Banal, Connie Dekker, Paolo Fabiani, Antonello Ruggieri, Joris Wille
Curator Saretto Cincinelli
Sitespecific Installation
Op water gebouwd
De Oude Vesten, Goes, 1991
Artists:
Marinus Boezem, Eric Colpaert, Connie Dekker, Ann Veronica Janssens, Gereon Lepper, Int. fish-handel Servaas & Zn., Thorvaldur Thorsteinsson, Matthias Wagner K., Jeroen van Westen
Culturele Raad Goes
Sitespecific Installation
Unnatural Acts
De Tuin, Beuningen, 1990
Artists:
Ruud Bloemheuvel, Eric Colpaert, Connie Dekker, Sarita Dev, Paul de Reus, Agnes Roelofse, Theo Schepens, Bea Stienstra, Joris Wille
Curator Thom Puckey
Sitespecific Installation
Achilles, de kwetsbare plek
Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, 1990
Artists:
Tony Andreas, Hans van den Ban, Simone ten Bosch, Connie Dekker, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, Sigurdur Gudmundsson, Berty van Loo, Harald Schole, Veron Urdarianu, Melanie de Vroom
Curator Doris Wintgens
Sitespecific Installation
Aula 1
Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, 1989
Solo exhibition
Curator Fred Wagemans
Bibliography
Catalogues
2020 Catalogue Are you at home? La Pléiade, Commentry
2015 Catalogue Il Fantasmo del disegno, Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno
2006 Catalogue Misure del tempo, MAC’N, Monsummano Terme
2004 Catalogue Spread in Prato, Pier Luigi Tazzi, Gallery Dryphoto
2004 Catalogue Uscita Pistoia, Pier Luigi Tazzi, Gallery Spazio Uno
2003 Catalogue Moto in luogo, Cantiere d’Arte Alberto Moretti, Galleria Schema
2001 Catalogue Abitanti, palazzo Fabroni, Arte Visive Contemporanee
1994 Catalogue Borduren 2000, Museum De Lakenhal
1991 Catalogue Un luogo da nessuna parte, Saretto Cincinelli
1991 Catalogue, Op Water Gebouwd, Culturele Raad Goes
1990 Catalogue Achilles, Doris Wintgens
1990 Catalogue, Unnatural Acts, Philip Peters, Thom Puckey
1987 Catalogue, De Prix de Rome, Museum Fodor
Contributions
2026
The Large Dutch Art Calender
2024
The Large Dutch Art Calender
De Grote Nederlandse Kunstkalender (The Large Dutch Art Calendar) shows a different work every day on a large format, from both renowned artists and up-and-coming talent. The tear-off calendar is packed with visual art, photography, fashion, illustrations, architecture and design. Due to its different size (30 x 34 cm, almost three (!) Kilos) and contemporary content, the calendar is a must-have. Interesting for art lovers, but also for those who want to be surprised by the multifaceted range of home-grown arts.
2022
Paolo Fabiani è Goku
Con testi di: Pietro Gaglianò, Angelika Stepken, Connie Dekker, Carlo Guaita, Vittoria Chierici, Elena El Asmar, Marco Neri, Marina Arienzale, Fabio Gori.
2015
LaLaLa by Melle Hammer
De publicatie LaLaLa van ontwerper Melle Hammer draagt de ondertitel(s): Typografie, Centrifuge en Grootboek. Het is een woest ogende maar precieze collage van observaties, werkstukken en intieme ervaringen met betrekking tot die rare wriemels die wij letters noemen en hoe die – mits goed gerangschikt – een brug kunnen vormen van de hand van een auteur naar het hoofd van een lezer.
In dit boek vinden teksten, gedachten en anekdotes van Hammer een plek naast samenwerkingen in woord en beeld met beeldend kunstenaars Jill Magid (USA), Connie Dekker (NL), letterontwerper Yara Khoury (Beirut), klankdichter Jaap Blonk en ontwerper Katinka Neyen (D) en méér. Er staat een vers in van dichter K. Michel (NL), een broodrecept van grafisch ontwerper Charles Melcher (USA) en er is een bijdrage van letterconservator David Shields (USA).
2012
A passo d’uomo
L’alterita’ originaria del viaggio
Con opera originale ed intervento a matita su pagine
opere, foto, progetto grafico di Laura VdB Facchini.
Compagni di viaggio, 7 testi di Alketa Vako, Mary Angela Schroth, Giorgio Bonsanti, Giovanna Tomassucci, Folco Quilici, Manuela de Leonardis, Guido Angelo Facchini
1997
My gang will get you
In 1997 Walter made a trip to Spitsbergen. He asked several artists to accompany him by giving him a small work suitable to fit in his suitcase. In some way, he showed the work in Spitsbergen. Documentation: A video registration which was presented in Vrieshuis Amerika, Amsterdam.
1996
Project Incestuous
Tiong Ang asked artists to make a 1-minute video presentation. The video compilation of all presentations was presented in Thread Waxing Space in New York and Proton ICA in Amsterdam.
1994
3D manuscript
Vedute (1991) was founded with the purpose to build up a collection of 3D-manuscripts: a library of three dimensional objects as visualized thoughts that make the concept of space accessible and tangible. 44 x 32 x 7 cm.
Other activities
Websites
Artists
Other
animals online
Leuke informatie over dieren, natuur en evolutie.
Voor kinderen van 9 tot 99.
Ron de Zeeuw schrijft de amusante, leerzame, en trefzeker geschreven stukjes voor de Dierenkrant Online. Connie Dekker maakt de site en de tekeningen.
