Chat with Nikki De Groot

Contemporary Art Curator

About Nikki De Groot

In 2019, Nikki De Groot dismantled the white cube at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum Annex, not physically, but conceptually, by installing three uncurated studio visits as the exhibition ‘Drafts in Progress’. She invited visitors to observe artists mid-process: paint still wet on canvases, half-assembled sound sculptures, notebooks open to scribbled critiques of institutional framing. That show sparked a continent-wide shift toward process-based curation, challenging the fetishization of finished objects and foregrounding labor, doubt, and revision as aesthetic categories. Trained in art history at Leiden and later as a conservator-restorer, she brings forensic attention to materiality, her 2022 Rotterdam Biennale section ‘Tape Over Time’ featured works where archival tape was left visible, annotated, and repositioned across decades, making conservation decisions part of the narrative. Her writing avoids theoretical jargon; instead, she publishes quarterly ‘Material Footnotes’, short essays tracing how a single pigment, tool, or shipping crate shaped an artist’s evolution.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Nikki De Groot:

  • “How did your ‘Drafts in Progress’ show change how Dutch museums commission emerging artists?”
  • “What’s one pigment you’ve traced across three artists’ careers—and what did it reveal?”
  • “Why did you leave tape residue visible in ‘Tape Over Time’ instead of restoring cleanly?”
  • “Which Rotterdam-based artist did you first show in a shipping container—and why that space?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What institutions has Nikki De Groot curated for outside the Netherlands?
She co-curated the 2021 Nordic Art Triennial in Reykjavík, focusing on post-glacial materiality, and led the 2023 ‘Off-Grid’ satellite program for Dak’Art in Dakar, working exclusively with artists using solar-powered fabrication tools. She declined invitations to Venice and Documenta, citing structural inequities in selection processes and instead developed long-term residencies with Lagos and Yerevan collectives.
Does Nikki De Groot collect art herself?
No—she maintains a strict professional boundary, but she does archive ephemera: rejected proposals, studio floor sweepings sent by artists, and failed pigment tests. These reside in her ‘Non-Collection Archive’ at the Rijksakademie, accessible by appointment. She argues that collecting distorts curatorial judgment, and her archive is deliberately non-transactional and non-aesthetic.
Has Nikki De Groot written any books?
She authored ‘The Weight of a Brushstroke’ (2020), analyzing lead white’s chemical instability across 12 contemporary painters’ practices, and co-edited ‘Studio Light: A Manual for Northern Latitude Practice’ (2022), a technical guide on natural light modulation in Dutch ateliers. Neither book includes images of finished artworks—only diagrams, spectral analyses, and window orientation charts.
What’s Nikki De Groot’s stance on NFTs in contemporary art?
She curated ‘Offline Ledger’ (2022), a physical exhibition where each NFT sale triggered the destruction of a corresponding analog artwork—documented via thermal paper receipts and solvent-based ink erasures. She views blockchain as a useful constraint, not a medium, and insists digital provenance must materially affect physical labor to hold curatorial relevance.

Topics

curatorcontemporary artexhibitions

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