Degann (Anne de Groot, b. 1989)
is a Dutch artist whose work explores presence and absence through intimate, emotionally charged scenes. Working with Chinese ink in a watercolour approach, she creates images that balance suggestion and detail — unmade beds, quiet interiors, traces of light and touch.
“Painting with ink is a search for light. I build the image with black ink on white paper, painting the shadows and depth while leaving the light untouched.”
Degann’s paintings have been exhibited internationally, including at l’Espace Art Absolument (Paris) and MLVA Art Gallery (Ghent), and in exhibitions alongside artists such as Tracey Emin and Louise Bourgeois. Her work is held in public and private collections, including ING and Sanquin. Through her ongoing exploration of light and absence, Degann’s practice reveals the quiet persistence of presence — an evocation of vulnerability, memory, and the lingering traces of human presence.
-
My work explores presence and absence through quiet, intimate scenes—most notably unmade beds—where traces of the human body linger as memory, light, and shadow. These spaces carry a kind of emotional imprint: what was once there is no longer visible, yet deeply felt. My practice is rooted in a personal visual language developed through years of working with Chinese ink in a watercolor approach. Painting with ink is a search for light. I build images through a process of layering and restraint—preserving light by leaving areas of the paper untouched, allowing it to remain present as silence, as breath.
This act of omission becomes a central gesture: absence as presence. Instead of constructing the image through addition, I shape it through what’s withheld. The contrast between ink and empty space creates emotional depth and quiet tension. This balance is central to both the technique and the emotional tone of the work—landscapes of intimacy and transformation, where emotion echoes even in absence. Rather than offering direct narratives, the work invites us into the stillness between memory and sensation—to see not what is shown, but what remains. In a fast, image-saturated world, this stillness becomes its own kind of resistance—a space for stillness, intimacy, and recognition.
-