“My dream life is my workspace. The boundary between living and creating has almost disappeared for me.”
Tracing the Edge of Presence and Absence
Micky Hoogendijk’s artistic voice has emerged as a resonant force across photography, sculpture, painting, and installation. A Dutch artist with an interdisciplinary approach, she brings to her visual narratives a profound understanding of emotional nuance, developed over years in the performing arts and film. Her transition from acting and directing to visual art was not a departure but a deepening—a move from storytelling with dialogue to storytelling through presence, form, and space. Her work does not shout; it lingers, invites, and confronts. She examines human vulnerability and sacred intimacy without spectacle, cultivating an atmosphere that compels viewers to listen with their eyes.
The impact of her life experiences—both geographically and emotionally—is intricately threaded through her practice. From the reverent minimalism of Japan to the raw intensity of life on the Canarian Islands and the dramatic contrasts of Los Angeles, each cultural backdrop has offered her new ways of seeing. These locations are not just memories; they’ve become catalysts for visual exploration. Their textures and temperaments echo throughout her work, from the subtle tension in her photography to the monumental gravity of her sculptures. She interprets place not as scenery but as spiritual terrain, absorbing and reflecting its emotional undercurrents.
Within her creations, Hoogendijk returns repeatedly to the themes of identity, duality, and the sacred. She explores what it means to be seen—and unseen—using the body as both subject and symbol. Her images and forms often hover at the boundary between strength and surrender, presence and absence. Whether working with light and lens or with bronze and clay, she constructs a visual dialogue that encourages contemplation. Her artworks hold a weight that is not just physical but existential, drawing viewers into a quiet space where emotion, ancestry, and intuition converge.
Micky Hoogendijk: Inheriting Vision, Shaping Legacy
Long before she held a camera or shaped clay, Micky Hoogendijk was surrounded by masterpieces. Her grandfather, Dirk Hoogendijk, was one of the Netherlands’ most prominent art dealers in the 20th century. Growing up among Old Masters instilled in her an early reverence for the cultural and emotional potency of art. But it wasn’t just exposure; it was a kind of apprenticeship by osmosis. This familial proximity to legacy shaped her understanding of art as more than aesthetic—it was continuity, heritage, and an enduring conversation across time. That early influence, though quiet, proved foundational as she began defining her own artistic voice.
Her career in visual art began not with grand ambition but through an intimate reckoning. Having worked extensively in film and technology, she found herself yearning for a more elemental form of expression. Photography arrived as a revelation. It became her first personal medium, offering a ritualistic process through which she could strip away artifice and explore psychological depth. Her early photographic series focused on capturing the symbolic gestures and postures of her subjects, revealing their interiority with striking clarity. This process marked a turning point—she had discovered a language that allowed emotion, memory, and symbolism to coexist without mediation.
As her practice evolved, she gravitated toward sculpture—a medium that amplified the permanence and gravity of her inquiries. Where photography revealed the ephemeral, sculpture embodied continuity. Bronze, with its rich historical resonance, became a material through which she could engage with ancestry, collective experience, and the mythic qualities of the human form. Her expansion into painting further broadened her vocabulary. It offered her a raw, gestural counterpoint to the structured forms of bronze. Across these mediums, Hoogendijk remains devoted to letting the concept dictate the method. She listens, responds, and allows the materials to guide the form, staying faithful to the emotional nucleus of each idea.
A Studio Without Borders
Micky Hoogendijk’s creative environment is less a place and more an extension of her inner state. While her Amsterdam studio serves as a central hub, she often creates wherever the work demands—be it a foundry in Italy or a casting studio abroad. Her artistic process begins not with sketches or outlines but with grounding—whether that’s pressing her hands into clay or arranging objects in silence. Light and atmosphere play a vital role, as does a sense of spaciousness. She crafts environments that are simultaneously contemplative and charged, allowing ideas to surface gradually rather than forcing them into being. It’s in this liminal space, between thought and touch, that her artworks begin to take form.
Rather than separating life from work, she has fused them into a continuous state of creation. Her living spaces hum with the energy of ongoing projects, raw materials, and unresolved questions. The boundary between existence and artistry is porous, and she embraces this fluidity as essential to her process. The tools and textures of her work inhabit her daily routines, not as distractions but as companions. This immersion allows her to remain attuned to subtle shifts in inspiration and emotion, enabling an organic flow between concept, reflection, and execution.
When disruptions occur, Hoogendijk treats them not as obstacles but as signals. A distraction might be the mind’s way of pointing to an idea not yet formed or a layer of emotion not yet examined. Instead of resisting these intrusions, she pays attention. This responsiveness adds complexity to her practice, revealing the ways in which her art is in constant dialogue with her subconscious. Whether she’s working on a massive sculpture or an intimate painting, this openness to disruption ensures that each piece remains alive, evolving not only from thought but from intuition and presence.
Micky Hoogendijk: The Monumental and the Intimate
Among the many works that define her oeuvre, The Ones stands out as a deeply personal and transformative series. Conceived during the global isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, these bronze sculptures began as small clay figures—formed quietly, almost meditatively, in solitude. What emerged from that silence was not only a study of form but a profound reflection on resilience, familial connection, and collective vulnerability. When cast into bronze, the figures took on an almost mythic presence: solemn, protective, and charged with emotional gravity. They mark a moment when the world turned inward, and for Hoogendijk, they crystallized an internal shift that continues to influence her trajectory.
Her current large-scale project, Humana, builds upon the conceptual architecture established in The Ones but extends it exponentially. Envisioned as a monumental installation of towering human figures—potentially reaching heights of 15 meters—Humana seeks to explore how scale influences perception, intimacy, and emotional impact. Hoogendijk isn’t merely interested in creating large sculptures; she is crafting immersive experiences. At such dimensions, a human figure ceases to be a passive object—it becomes a presence that alters the space it inhabits. These sculptures are designed not only to be viewed but to be encountered, offering visitors a space for reflection, awe, and shared humanity.
This project also reflects her lifelong fascination with the sacred feminine, ancestral memory, and the human body’s symbolic power. Humana will embody these themes on an architectural scale, offering a visceral experience that speaks across cultures and time. Hoogendijk sees the installation not as a destination, but as a conversation—a site where strength and fragility coexist, where history meets emotion, and where presence becomes a shared ceremony. It is an ambitious vision grounded in personal evolution and global resonance, aiming to elevate public space into sacred encounter.
